by judyatlarge

Created on: September 22, 2008

Yes, consumers should have the option of buying products in glass bottles rather than plastic, reusing them and/or recycling them. Certainly, at one time manufacturers of bottled products saw a financial advantage in moving to plastic containersless breakage, less weight to transport, less trouble in that they did not have to clean and reuse their containers. This, however, is an outlook that must be changed, and changed quickly because the cost of not doing so is far outweighed by the cost of continuing current practices.

In a certain area of the Pacific Ocean where the currents meet, there is a vast floating raft of plastic bottles of all kinds. These are bottles that have been thrown away by consumers, bottles manufactured from petroleum products and used in their millions by huge corporations, none of whom offer an alternative. Slow as this plastic is to deteriorate, it does do so in time. The degraded plastic, which contains substances poison to sea-life then sinks to the bottom where it is ingested by bottom-feeding creatures such as crabs, which are in turn ingested by larger animals, thus propagating an-ongoing cycle of poisons in the food-chain, which eventually endangers humans, too.

The use of plastic soda and water bottles in particular has become a huge problem and if informed and concerned consumers were offered a choice, part of the crisis could be alleviated. There are many municipalities, even in what we, in North America, might consider Third World countries (Costa Rica, for one), who have put an outright ban on plastic soda bottles, especially those of varied colors, designed to attract the eyes of children who consider such bottles "pretty" and therefore desirableuntil they are empty, at which point they throw them away. Though those particular Costa Rican communities do not as yet have a viable recycling program, or an option to plastic bottles at this moment, they are definitely on the right track. If, world-wide, enough municipalities enact rigorous laws and enforce them, manufacturers might be forced to change their ways.

Indeed, this is happening already in North America. Many far-sighted municipalities, companies and even schools are encouraging residents, employees, and students to stop using (plastic) bottled water. The bottled water phenomenon, like that of soda bottles, is world-wide and the problem of disposal is equally far-spread since there are too few people of conscience using what recycling exists to help keep our world clean. Yes, glass bottles were also often tossed on the sides of roads, on beaches, wherever the user felt it was convenient to dispose of an unwanted object. But when a higher deposit/return policy went into effect, much of this dangerous littler from broken glass was reduced. As people become more aware of what's happening to our unrenewable planet, enlightened manufacturers who do offer an alternative to plastic may well find themselves gaining more customers than they expect; enough, perhaps, to overshadow the extra cost of breakage, shipping, and cleaning glass bottles for reuse.

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