Pepsi Will Soon Make All Bottles from Plants

[JeanLuc761]

Jesus Christ.

Ever heard of recycling? No? There's this little thing we do in civilized countries, where every bottle or can you buy from the store can be returned to that same store (or any other store) empty and whole in return for a token sum - say, 20 or 40 cent. Adds up quickly though. Oh, look: a ton of bottles that can either be safely recycled as they ought to be, or down-right re-used as is.

Fun fact: Drunken people are poor at financial management and tend to drop their bottles around everywhere, but luckily if you don't collect your own bottles after the (outdoors) party, someone who is more entrepreneurial than you surely will. Everyone wins!

So, seriously - stuff like the OP there: not really helping. But yeah, silver star for trying I guess.

/eco rant.

This rant is unfortunately filled with misinformation. Not all plastics are recycled; matter of fact only about 12% of them are (as of 2003). Many plastic bottles simply can't be recycled, so they are sent to the landfill.

With this new type of manufacturing, we can now ensure that the plastic bottles that can't be recycled will be biodegradable.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Jesus Christ.

Ever heard of recycling?

Recycling is a horrible way to recover materials. In "Reduce, reuse, recycle." it's meant to be the LAST option. Also, most recycling processes burn energy and generate their own more dangerous kinds of waste. Sometimes it's safer to dump things than recycle them.

Want to help the environment? Stop drinking soda at all, or at least switch to cans. It's easier to recycle aluminum than it is to refine bauxite.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Whats this about our plastic bottles in our landfills? I thought people knew how to recycle!

 

[Red Right Hand]

Jesus Christ.

Ever heard of recycling? No? There's this little thing we do in civilized countries, where every bottle or can you buy from the store can be returned to that same store (or any other store) empty and whole in return for a token sum - say, 20 or 40 cent. Adds up quickly though. Oh, look: a ton of bottles that can either be safely recycled as they ought to be, or down-right re-used as is.

Fun fact: Drunken people are poor at financial management and tend to drop their bottles around everywhere, but luckily if you don't collect your own bottles after the (outdoors) party, someone who is more entrepreneurial than you surely will. Everyone wins!

So, seriously - stuff like the OP there: not really helping. But yeah, silver star for trying I guess.

/eco rant.

Is it not better though to not make any more petrol based plastics and instead make them out of a natural resource?

As much as you would like to think it, we still do not recylce enough that we don't have to make more plastic.

OT: I just hope that they share their method of making it. Down right stupid if they don't.

 

[Physics Engine]

So now, if you drink a Pepsi product, there's more natural material on the outside than in the drink itself. I'd like to see if there's more nutrition in the bottle than in the soda now. It's certainly plausible.

You just keep raking in those corn growing bonuses the government sends you Pepsi. Keep your pseudo-enviro crap to yourselves.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I was at my local recycling centre (in normal speak - tip), and they had signs up saying they're now recycling nearly 80% of household waste, which I think's pretty damn good, and they take about a hundred different things, from bras to plastic bottle caps.

I still think it's a shame that working electronics go in the same places as the broken ones however, couldn't the millions of TVs getting dumped as people go flat screen get collected up and sent to Africa, even one TV and video recorder per school would surely help?

I'm just waiting for someone to go 'they're using plants to make bottles? Won't someone think of all those poor plants? Pepsi's using up the environment instead of using recycled plastic!'

Seriously, so long as they break down into plant material over time again, there's no real downside surely, I'm all for it, so long as they don't break down too soon after the best before.

I can see supermarket floors flooded on the 1st July 2012 as all the best before Jun 12 Pepsi self destructs!

 

[Hawgh]

Good. If you ask me, they had it coming. All smug about their chloroplast and photosynthesis and whatnot.

 

[Casimir_Effect]

Excellent news. I just hope it's also energy efficient to make these bottles and that they don't hoard the secret away to get one-up on Coke. If this method works then every company should do it.

Also, cue all the nutballs coming out who will complain their Pepsi now tastes different & INFERIOR!

 

[gigastar]

Hmm, while not a supporter of the green movement i do like this because that means theres more for the cars.

It wont be much considering that everyone else still uses the current plastics, but its a little bit more.

Id just like to point out i dont drink Pepsi either.

 

[N1ceDreamz]

Sprite is made by Coca-Cola right? Coca-Cola get in on this NOW.

 

[Bags159]

So Pepsi will have some plant stuff huh? I dunno. Its good that its getting green but I'm a little concerned for the drink.

But then again I don't drink Pepsi so I really shouldn't be worried. I hope this goes out well. Our environment does need some cleaning.

You're concerned about a drink in a product made out of grass, bark, husks and others but not concerned about a drink in a product made out of petroleum? You know, similar to the stuff that powers your car? That's just plain silly.

Hmm, while not a supporter of the green movement i do like this because that means theres more for the cars.

It wont be much considering that everyone else still uses the current plastics, but its a little bit more.

Id just like to point out i dont drink Pepsi either.

How can you not support the green movement? Do you purposely go out of your way to throw out cans and bottles instead of recycling them? Again, silly.


Since people don't recycle even when it's readily available (there's one recycling can next to every trash can on my campus, yet I still see cans and bottles in the trash), they might as well just replace the plastic bottles with this.

 

[Wolfrug]

SCIENCE TIEM!


thermosetting polymers, aka, milk bottles, soda bottles, and various other plastics can only be set once, then they stay in the same shape. You can not break them down to make Thermoplastics which are able to be reused as different molds.

to say that you can effectively recycle thermosetting polymers to reuse is like saying drinking bleach will help cure any disease.


Science, Being useful since 34 A.D.

Whats this about our plastic bottles in our landfills? I thought people knew how to recycle!

^see my post above.

Bottles aren't made out of those plastics, they're made out of PET [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PET_bottle_recycling], which is quite recyclable indeed. I suppose in earlier times they weren't made out of PET, but even then each returned plastic bottle was recycled in average over 18 times. I'm sorry but if you're going to 'science' me, you better get your facts straight.

I'm not saying that making bottles out of plant material isn't a good thing in general - it's just that you can get up to nearly 100% return rate on both aluminium cans (which can be recycled fully) and bottles through a system like this, which is infinitely better than just changing the material.

 

[Wolfrug]

This rant is unfortunately filled with misinformation. Not all plastics are recycled; matter of fact only about 12% of them are (as of 2003). Many plastic bottles simply can't be recycled, so they are sent to the landfill.

With this new type of manufacturing, we can now ensure that the plastic bottles that can't be recycled will be biodegradable.

See my above quote on PET plastics. I'm not saying all plastics are recycled, but even if they're not recycled they can be reused. In Finland, at least, plastic bottles were reused on average 18 times, and almost 100% of them were returned for recycling. That's a hell of a lot of bottles away from landfills (source: http://www.ekopullo.fi/default.asp?docId=12494). Nowadays we use PET bottles which, as mentioned, as simply recycled.

Once again, I'm not saying it's a 'bad' thing that they've found an alternative way of manufacturing bottles, but the article does say very clearly that these bottles are NOT biodegradable - so unless you start using a proper recycling system, you're STILL going to fill up your landfills.

(oops. Two separate posts to answer two separate questions, unnecessary. Merge them if you want, mods!)

 

[Bloodstain]

Not needing to use oil is very, very awesome. Go Pepsi!

 

[Heathrow]

I'll just leave this here. [http://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html]

The fact that this isn't biodegradable but PepsiCo are touting it as a success is a huge slap in the face.

 

[Hyper-space]

A safe, transparent, re-usable plant based plastic?

Consider me puzzled, a wee bit cynical, but desperate to find out more.

Oh my god! that cat just wont let your avatar finish his cereal!

But on topic: i concur, this sounds too good to be true.

 

[Penitent]

After seeing so much inaction by big industries to the environmental issue for so long, news like this is genuinely heartwarming.

I don't drink soda, and don't ever plan to, but Pepsi have just earned my eternal respect. Thank you guys.