Reusing glass containers

[desura]

So I looked it up and I think the most effective recyclable good is actually paper, which is not what I expected since paper is much more easily biodegradable than plastic or glass, but recycling paper is effective because recycling it requires much less energy than glass or plastic recycling.

Especially glass.

What are the best ways to reuse glass? Like, beer bottles have a way of just piling up.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm a big fan of glasphault, but that isn't used much anymore, and it's not something the average homeowner can do. I just recycle glass. I keep some interesting jars/bottles to store stuff in, but I have little use for typical beer bottles.

 

[DesiPower]

Well there are 2 aspects of recycling, 1 - preventing non biodegradable waste ending up in landfill and 2 - wasting resources/raw materials. While papers degrades easily, it kills trees. While glass ends up in landfills, it does not biodegrades, it does not leak harmful chemicals and gases polluting our water supply and making the soil barren. So I will take glass over plastic containers every day. Even if the choice was between glass and paper containers I would take glass and save trees. As far as reusing glass is concerned, there is very little you can do with it, let it go to the landfill, the % of glass in your trash that goes to landfill is far less and harmful than the other stuff you throw away.

 

[Zanovar]

nvm

 

[tynopik]

most effective recyclable is aluminum

 

[Red Squirrel]

Glass can be melted to make stuff, and is fairly simple to recycle. It does require lot of energy to do so though. Same with metals like aluminum. Still better than letting it go in the landfill though. Reusing is of course even better. A lot of plastic containers are reusable too, some are even microwave and dishwasher safe.

 

[Newbian]

Melt them down and make marbles out of it.

 

[evident]

From just looking at the "garbage islands" floating around the pacific, glass waste isn't nearly as harmful to the environment as plastic is. just think- oceans can "break down" glass into nice looking and relatively benign sea glass for beach goers to collect. plastic? not so much. I was vacationing at a beach in vietnam and while the island could have been beautiful it was ruined by the amount of waste that gets washed up on the beach every day.

 

[zinfamous]

beer bottles: keep, sterilize, bottle your own homebrew, reuse. replace all beers with your own homebrew = never require another beer bottle

jar: store cooking fat, freeze, toss frozen fat in trash, reuse. sort and store screws and nails in your workshop.
harvest the bottoms for replacement lenses on your spectacles. Use them to make fancy mirrors and windows in your wasteland hovel. Or elven glass arrows and glass armor to hunt the falmar living in the hollowed-out underground dwelling accessible through your basement broom closet.

 

[Linflas]

So I looked it up and I think the most effective recyclable good is actually paper, which is not what I expected since paper is much more easily biodegradable than plastic or glass, but recycling paper is effective because recycling it requires much less energy than glass or plastic recycling.

Especially glass.

What are the best ways to reuse glass? Like, beer bottles have a way of just piling up.

The way it was done until the 1970's: Use returnable glass bottles that are cleaned and sterilized and reused upon return to the manufacturer.

 

[Red Squirrel]

the falmar living in the hollowed-out underground dwelling accessible through your basement broom closet.

You have that too? I've been debating on drywalling over it but I think it's against code.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The way it was done until the 1970's: Use returnable glass bottles that are cleaned and sterilized and reused upon return to the manufacturer.

Yep we need more of this in general, it's too bad it changed. Stuff should come in reusable containers and it should be customary to bring them back to the grocery store or other centre. Could even extend to non food items. Like those clamshell packaging are the worst. How about it comes in a reusable container that has a sticker to show it has not been opened. You can return container to the store or reuse it. Filler/protective material could consist of paper based product that is recyclable. Lots of stuff that could be done but we as a society are too stuborn to change.

 

[Carson Dyle]

beer bottles: keep, sterilize, bottle your own homebrew, reuse. replace all beers with your own homebrew = never require another beer bottle

Keep in mind that they should be non-twistoff bottles. Brown, ideally. When I did some home brewing back in the 90s I used to buy and drink cases of Samuel Adams, which worked well. Make sure you wash and dry the bottles before stashing them, or they'll grow mold.

I've read that the market for recycled glass is pretty bad right now. We have curbside recycling through all of our trash carriers. I saw a story in my local paper that said they all just send them somewhere to be crushed for walkways or somesuch, while the city, which has its own recycling dropoff centers actually gets the glass recycled into new glass.