Thursday, May 1, 2008

Recycle Those Water Bottles!

Recyclable bottlesDuring my research on water bottles for the April 27th Calvin's Corner I found some interesting ECO info on the bottles. Consumers seem to feel torn that these bottles are bad for the environment. Here is some stats to help "quench your thirst" for knowledge.

  • Did you know? A water bottle may become your new living room carpet... or it may keep you warm as your new coat or sleeping bag on your next camping trip.... PET bottles are easily recycled into many polyester based products...
  • Bottled Water is an environmentally friendly product in British Columbia and Alberta for two reasons; There is a recycling system that has kept up with consumer demands, and that system has a proven track record of keeping used beverage containers out of the landfills by supplying post consumer plastics to manufacturers that make non-food-related products, like carpet or polyester fibers for clothing. Recycled plastic containers further reduce the demand for new petroleum based resins.
  • In 2006 in BC, 813 million non-alcohol plastic beverage containers were returned to recycling depots last year, 72% of the total containers distributed. Alternative recycling systems including curbside blue box and office recycling programs could increase that number closer to 90%.
  • Beverage Container Stewardship Program awareness campaigns continue to improve the recovery rates. (In some US markets it is estimated that fewer than 15% of plastic beverage containers are recycled ...boooooo!)

KEEP ON RECYCLING!

Calvin