The Ink is the Life
(via Gizmodo)
This reminds me of an old essay of mine, Legends of long forgotten yoghurt jars. Imagine water being more expensive than oil — well, no wonder, what you in fact give your money for is the plastic bottle (which you promtly throw away, or at best - recycle (на български) ).
It happens again here, this time in reverse. There is this carrot juice, costing about 240 units per litre. It comes in a glass container with non-standard cap, which means you can’t reuse it, because the cap smells of carrots and bananas (yeah, it’s a carrot-banana juice, just like your Granny used to make it…). You also can’t return it to the store, as they just don’t take them. So, not only you get another junk package you have to throw/recycle, but this time it’s made of glass (i.e. more expensive), it requires more energy to transport and is recycled as anonymous glass, which means it passes an unnecessary cycle of melting/recasting which again raises its cost and lowers the environmental gains from recycling.
Btw, Frost promtly gave the answer to the carrot theory of the wanderer — Poland has been declared a prime producer of carrots in the EU, and this is what stands behind these ad campaigns.
If you decide to go and make your own carrot juice (the right thing IMO), make sure to rinse them thoroughly, or you’re gonna drink hair bleach.
Lovely article on yoghurt jars, thanks:)
Btw…do YOU use the separate waste collection containers?:D
Comment by haz — 16 November 2006, Thursday @ 11:18
No, but we usually have mostly organic litter. I do keep old batteries in a box though (idea by Frost), wondering what to do with them ;)
Still, we could do better, I know it. The obvious solution is to have several waste baskets at home for different types of waste.
But the point of my post (and the yoghurt article) is about the “packaging culture” - the manifacturers just don’t care about recycling or cost effectiveness. Even worse - it is in their immediate interest to sell you an expensive package you don’t need per se.
Comment by Mordred — 16 November 2006, Thursday @ 12:25
Absolutely. I have often felt my contribution to the world is mostly empty packages:/
Even ordinary loaves of bread are sold in plastic bags, not to mention the additional labor involved in putting each loaf in one. I’ve seen the women in the shop next door do it, for what it seemed like hours. The bread is made on the same site in the local bakery.
Comment by haz — 16 November 2006, Thursday @ 12:50
@M: I have been wondering what to do with the batteries as well. Recently I have read some summarues and analyses on the obligations of municipalities under the environmental legislation. It is up to the municipalities to organize the collection of empty batteries. In the city of Sofia it probably would be up to the “rayon” (quarter I guess?) mayors, so I am going to write them a mail to ask how they have “organized” it.
Ypu can do the same if you wish,
http://www.kvartal-mladost.com/ is the site of your “rayon”, you can get all kind of contacts here:
http://www.kvartal-mladost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=12&Itemid=26
I have already asked throught the contact form on the Capital Municipality site here:
http://www.sofia.bg/contact.asp
Here they have “virtual” err document registration? (деловодство), which made my day:
http://www.sofia.bg/virtdelovodstvo.asp
@Haz
Speaking specifically of bread, I do prefer it to be packed. Of course it could be packed in paper, but anyway I do not like the picture of loafs heaped in crates and people - both vendors and clients - putting their dirty grazy hands on it.
I do see the major part of the problem in plastic bags being offered for free. They even insist on giving me one when I refuse! And many people here do belive this is some kind of birth customer right and even blame big supermarkets for asking money for the bags which is how it should be. You will see how they will start to pay attention. The mayor should introduce a tax on plastic bags - this is it!
Comment by Frostie — 29 November 2006, Wednesday @ 21:25
Actually its referred to as Search engine optimization that when i search for this post I found this web page at the top of all web pages in search engine.
Comment by James — 21 February 2018, Wednesday @ 10:06