Every year Americans use approximately 50 billion plastic water bottles. A product that is well known to be harmful to the environment as well as humans. I propose that we replace plastic bottles/liquid containers with glass ones or replace the large majority of them. This would include energy drinks, all alcoholic beverages, milks, juices, etc. Any drink that is purchased in a store and is often packaged in a plastic bottle.. Glass can be recycled indefinitely and does not release any toxic chemicals or micro-pieces that plastic does. The arguments made for glass being harmful for the environment are the minerals required to make it along with the co2 emissions it produces in production as well as shipping. Already glass bottles are up to 30% made from recycled glass, if we are able to recycle all glass bottlesWith having a designated bin separate from other recyclables there could be a collection system that collects them and brings them to places to be reshaped and sent out for selling once again. If businesses, especially smaller businesses had a system where you could return bottles once you’re done (Allandale Farm in Boston, MA has this system for some products) this would bypass the outside requirements for collection for some establishments.
Plastic bottles are profitable with it costing between 15 and 65 cents to make and are sold with them costing typically around 1.50 – 2.00 USD. Glass on the other hand is more expensive, part of the reason why plastic is used much more often than glass, however the current usage of plastic bottles is not sustainable given that the vast majority are not recycled, they don’t go away, and are very harmful to the planet. Another reason glass is thought to not be as good as plastic is that it breaks easily, but considering the impacts it has on people and the environment I think it is not such a huge ask for people to just be more careful not to break them.
So in short; replace plastic bottles with glass ones, have glass bottle collection systems so none gets wasted, be able to return used ones to stores, and businesses need to be ok with not making a bigger profit margin.