I have mason jars that my grandmother and then my mother used for pickling. The only waste is the rubber ring which needs to be replaced occasionally and THAT could be recycled. Many of these bottles have been used for 80+ years now. I have a few Ball jars which my GREAT grandmother used 100+ years ago.
Beer bottles in Canada are reused dozens of times and are recyclable (brown glass) when broken or worn out.
The only containers which are infinitely recyclable are aluminum and coloured glass (nearly), but that takes energy.
Plastics are not currently infinitely recyclable as the polymer chains break down. A lot of plastic is simply not recyclable at all in most of North America [1]
We need to just force manufacturers to bear the costs of recycling their products 100%: everybody would switch to reusable and this current clam shell packaging disaster would come to a close.
I have mason jars that my grandmother and then my mother used for pickling. The only waste is the rubber ring which needs to be replaced occasionally and THAT could be recycled. Many of these bottles have been used for 80+ years now. I have a few Ball jars which my GREAT grandmother used 100+ years ago.
Beer bottles in Canada are reused dozens of times and are recyclable (brown glass) when broken or worn out.
The only containers which are infinitely recyclable are aluminum and coloured glass (nearly), but that takes energy.
Plastics are not currently infinitely recyclable as the polymer chains break down. A lot of plastic is simply not recyclable at all in most of North America [1]
We need to just force manufacturers to bear the costs of recycling their products 100%: everybody would switch to reusable and this current clam shell packaging disaster would come to a close.
[1] https://apps.npr.org/plastics-recycling/