The PET recycling article was very enticing. One comment that struck me as odd was: "Bottle-to-bottle recycling is a regular activity in the United States but has been slow to take off in the European Union." In countries like Germany (and California-ha!)you pay a deposit as you purchase your drinks, and then receive this as a credit when you go to purchase your next round. Additionally they have warehouse-like stores--much like our ABC stores--where you purchase bulk quantities of drinks (mostly packaged in glass containers) and return ALL used bottled when you are done to receive your pfand/credit. It is such an amazingly efficient system. Plastic is not such a huge problem there, and many European countries are more dedicated to recycling. Even after living in CA, I noticed that most people wouldn't recycle even though you can get a deposit back for doing so. Here in Charleston, recycling is picked up once every two weeks and it is all placed together in one big container...I wonder where that goes! And our country is crushing the over 200 truly electic cars which were leased out a couple of years ago. Nice one!

Depolymerizing PET, also called "reverse methanolysis, has not been a sustainable business in the US. When the price of recycled monomer dips enough to compete with the margins of virgin polymer producers, the financial sponsorship of the recycling projects by bottle producers and polymer makers gets yanked and advocacy efforts are made to curb government support. This tendency is amplifed when raw material and energy prices(nat gas) take a steep jump upward, as this hits the virgin producer harder than the recycled monomer producer.

The smaller the recycling loop is, the more resource efficient it can be. The best choice is clearly to refill your own bottles with a carbon filtered tap, exactly the same technology that bottlers use.

For the last few years I've been using 2 liter plastic bottles and some string to make solar cloches for spring planting. I cut the bottom off a 2 liter or larger plastic bottle and surround it with six or so 2 liter bottles filled with water. Under the center, now bottomless bottle I plant my seeds or seedlings up to six weeks before last frost. Tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, herbs all can get an early start.

If you want to be really cool, use green plastic 2-liter bottles for the northern-most ones in the ring. If you want to be supercool, paint the back side of the green plastic bottles silver to reflect light back into the bottles.

During the day, the water in the bottles absorb the heat from the sun and make a micro-climate to keep the seeds growing and prevent the seedlings from frosting. Works fine here in Zone 6.

I learned the technique from Candide's garden.

hi,
morning,i am a Bsc student.please i am making findings
for my thesis i was wandering if you could help me with some findings.i am writing on the LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
of sustainable PET bottle MANAGEMENT.And comparing the one-way and the refillable PET bottles.please if you
have information to give me on this i will be happy
either via email of post.
lawong kinenla Edith
juri-gagarin str1
zi 509-2
03046 cottbus
Germany

thanks in advance
Edith