Today, I discovered a magnificent publication on the reuse of plastic bottles. Enjoy !
Read at :
Designboom
http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/plasticbottle.html
Reuse and recycle plastic water pet bottles
Production of plastic water bottles increases.
Turn PET plastic bottles into amazing design objects.
From trash to treasure - august 2001
Design and recycling
Bottled water is the fastest growing beverage industry
in the world. According to the International Bottled
Water Association (IBWA), sales of bottled water have
increased by 500 percent over the last decade:
1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water every
year. Unfortunately, the recycling process is messy and
inefficient. Plastic bottle recycling has not kept pace
with the dramatic increases in virgin resin Polyethylene
Terephthalate (PET) sales, particularly for PET bottles.
It’s interesting to note how the last imperative in the
ecological triad of reduce / reuse / recycle,
has emerged as the one given prominence.
The consequences of demanding an emphasis on the
first — reduction of consumption and production —
puts one on the path of confrontation with a system which
seeking to function at maximum capacity, not minimum.
Last update:
In august 2001 even Perrier, world’s leading bottle water
company, moved away from the iconic trademark glass
bottle, which for almost 100 years has set the design standard
in mineral water packaging. The company launched
a 50cl format in PET plastic.
A close look at the myths about recycling shows they
are being perpetrated less by those committed to ecology
and more by those doing the most damage to the planet.
Plastics recycling only minimally reduces the amount of virgin
resources used to make plastics.
Recycled plastic is a small percentage of what is manufactured
and the amount is actually decreasing!
Even those active in administering recycling programs
have come to recognize, for instance, that plastics
consumption is actually encouraged by recycling!
Most of the increase in virgin resin sales has been for
single-serve PET soda bottles that now make up 60 percent
of soda bottle market share. The 50cl form is particularly
suited to the out-of-home circuit, in particular the on the
go market.
The notion, that recycling is even a little better than
nothing produces only more illusions, not environmental
sanity. Mad levels of production and consumption are at the
core of market economies, and unless that process is
confronted, little will change !
What can we do to help reduce packaging trash?
In terms of bacterial content, it is questionable as to whether bottled water is better than most municipal tap water. The only difference between some bottled water and tap water is that it is distributed in bottles rather than pipes. ‘I refill plastic bottles about three times, ‘ you might say, not considering that re-filled bottles can become perfect ‘bacteria breeding grounds’.
Enjoy these ‘plastic phantastics’ in another light,
Turn plastic bottles into great objects. Reuse them as fun or functional items, here are some quick and easy ideas :
- cut & trim off the top portion of a plastic water bottle (size: 1l or more, with tap) and use it as a champagne glass.
- build a waterpipe.
- ship in bottles.
- lavalamps.
- wave maker (without getting wet).
—
other 48 uses for PET bottles
http://www.netspace.net.au/~bradcalv/petbot.htm
