The Bottle Showdown

There's been a lot of debate lately about plastic bottles, and plastic waste in general. AS THERE SHOULD BE. Because we are in a climate pickle and everything is connected. So let me lay it out for you as there are a lot of factors involved. 

Creating plastic bottles requires petroleum materials to make chemical compounds to create plastic, and then this is turned into plastic bottles. The everyday plastic bottle IS mostly recyclable (a lot of places) but it isn't actually recycled as much as it could be. And it can't be recycled over and over again forever. So there's that. 

Pros - cheaper, durable

Cons - only mostly recyclable, reliant on oil 

Creating aluminum cans/bottles requires mining bauxite, which is horribly destructive. But the everyday aluminum can IS totally and completely recyclable worldwide. And is recyclable time and time again endlessly. But it is a little more expensive than plastic for the company selling a product (water/soda/beer/whatever) in a container, but endlessly recyclable. 

Pros - durable, endlessly recyclable f-o-r-e-v-e-r and valuable enough that people WILL recycle

Cons - bauxite mining 

I'm going to ignore glass bottles because I don't feel like everyone using glass will solve our problems when it's bulkier and heavier and not everywhere recycles glass anymore, though it is also endlessly recyclable. 

So things that come in plastic bottles are mainly beverages - water, carbonated water, sodas, juices, on and on. Things that come in aluminum cans are also mostly beverages - water, carbonated water, sodas. Things that come in aluminum bottles are mostly beer. 

I feel like the beer industry is onto something here. 

I used to think the aluminum bottles were dumb, when I could just buy a can of beer. But the ability to reseal the container is helpful. But this doesn't just apply to beer. 

So my main question is - 

Why are we using plastic bottles AT ALL when we could use aluminum cans and aluminum bottles in lieu, which are endlessly recyclable??

I suspect the answer is profit margins because aluminum is slightly more expensive, and probably also stubbornness, and maybe with a dash of consumer appeal. 

But if companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi stopped selling single serving plastic bottles and started using aluminum bottles instead, I would TOTALLY jump on that train. And I don't even drink that much soda. Before you jump all over me and say "but Rachel they do make aluminum bottles" let me tell yes I know. Coca-Cola does make aluminum bottles of the 8.5oz variety. But it's more of a novelty item marketing as "vintage" than a mainstream product aimed at solving a pollution crisis. 

I feel like much ado is made of bottled water, fairly enough, but the conversation often ignores bottled sodas. There's literally millions of bottles of soda sold everyday, And billions of plastic water bottles are sold every year. So much ado SHOULD be made of bottled water. Most people drinking bottled water have access to clean and safe tap water and that's unforgivable. 

But we ignore how many people also drink soft drinks on the regular that choose plastic bottles because they're resealable (especially if it takes them 3 days to drink a 20oz soda like me) over aluminum cans. What we need is CHANGE. 

CHANGE in consumer habits to drink less sugary sodas (for our own health). 

CHANGE in production to use less/no plastic for packaging needlessly (for the earth's health). 

CHANGE in attitudes towards everyone starting to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. 

Virgin aluminum is costlier than plastic, and bauxite mining is horribly destructive as discussed earlier. But using recycled aluminum costs only 5% of new aluminum, and that loop can go on forever. And a lot of places already have high aluminum recycling costs. It's valuable enough that people can and will and do recycle it. So we can use the same aluminum over and over again and again forever. If we do that, maybe we won't need to mine as much or any bauxite anymore if all aluminum is recycled. And not using plastic means no reliance on petroleum, and no drilling or fracking or anything of that nature. Seems like an all around win to me. 

Resources: 

How the plastic bottle went from miracle container to hated garbage National Geographic

Will Aluminium Cans Replace Plastic Bottles? Forbes  

Beverage Container Showdown: Plastic vs. Glass vs. Aluminum Earth911

Which is greener: Glass bottles, plastic bottles, or aluminum cans? Philadelphia Inquirer

Plastic Bottle Vs. Aluminum Can Sciencing.com

Are Soda Cans or Plastic Bottles Worse for the Environment? Lifehacker

Expect more aluminum bottles in the recycling stream Resource Recycling

Aluminum bottle Wikipedia

Review: Cleancult

I was running out of dish soap and counter cleaner, and loathe to buy things that come in plastic bottles. In my online searching I found Cleancult! Their products come in recyclable cardboard, and sounded pretty awesome so I placed an order to give it a try. I've now tried all the products so here's my reviews of them:

Counter cleaner - it smells great, seems to mostly clean the counters. Doesn't do well with anything greasy, though. Probably not actually disinfecting but for general counter cleanliness it seems fine. And it smells good too.

Lemongrass soap bar - I like the scent, it foams up nice and everything, but probably I'll just stick with my normal bar of soap after this. No fault of theirs, I just like my regular bar soap better.

Dish soap - I actually haven't used this one yet, but I have it to use. I didn't run out of soap as fast as I thought I would.

Dishwasher tablets - These come in a paper bag, and seem to wash the dishes totally fine. I was previously using a powder in my dishwasher and maybe I'll continue to use that after just because it's easier and cheaper and also totally recyclable.

So to sum up - I love the idea of the products coming in fully recyclable containers and the cartons are really aesthetic. It's 50/50 for me using their products in the future. Possibly will continue to use the liquid soaps and probably won't use the soap bar and dishwasher tablets.

It's hard to find cleaning products that don't involve a ton of plastic in my strive to be zero(er) waste. This is a step in the right direction but there's such a long way to go still!