Helping to save the planet ....... a little bit more ....

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Globalti

Legendary Member
.....and the energy for processing, re-melting and turning all those PET bottles into plastic sheet then into cycle bags comes from......?
 
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ozboz

ozboz

Guru
Location
Richmond ,Surrey
I’d assume that a similar amount of energy would be used to produce any of the synthetic waterproof materials that would be used in the manufacture of this form of bag/packs ,a product that could well be used for over a decade , key here is recycling , this form of container ,bottles, being one of the foremost in the problematic single use of plastic products on the global polluting radar .
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
I think we'd all agree that recycling plastic bottles is better than not. They can recycled into a variety of different products. In the US Mohawk recycle over 8 million bottles a day and turn them into carpet yarn which results in a hard wearing and stain resistant product. I believe they are available in the UK so you can do your bit when buying some new carpet.

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Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
They look quite nice and I was almost tempted. I could get one of those and have a nice virtuous feeling.

But I don't actually need any more bike bags. And that's key. Reduce, reuse, recycle. In that order.

But if you are in the market they do look decent. (Goes back to web page to browse products again) ;)
 
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ozboz

ozboz

Guru
Location
Richmond ,Surrey
The US have been recycling this type of product for years , I saw a programme must be over 15 years ago , a clothing manufacturer was recycling coke bottles into jumpers and what looked like check lumberjack jackets , he said it cost about $2 more and this was passed on to the buyer....
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
It takes determination by a factory owner to recycle. You've got to invest in the equipment then get it working well enough to produce an acceptable quality of product and turn a profit. Used PET bottles must be expensive to recycle compared to buying several 40' containers of new PET beads or bottle pre-forms from China at astonishingly low prices (although admittedly higher in the last year) and simply pouring them straight into a hopper above your injection moulding machine.

In developing countries nobody gives a flying feck about the environment, it's only us northern hemisphere hand-wringers who salve our consciences by pretending to care. I've visited factories in east Africa that are powered by forest trees, piled up in huge heaps in the compound and fed into the boilers and I've lost track of the new PET bottle or poly bag or jar or bottle blow-moulding factories I've seen announced with a fanfare in local newspapers.
 
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Gravity Aided

Legendary Member
Location
Land of Lincoln
It takes determination by a factory owner to recycle. You've got to invest in the equipment then get it working well enough to produce an acceptable quality of product and turn a profit. Used PET bottles must be expensive to recycle compared to buying several 40' containers of new PET beads or bottle pre-forms from China at astonishingly low prices (although admittedly higher in the last year) and simply pouring them straight into a hopper above your injection moulding machine.

In developing countries nobody gives a flying feck about the environment, it's only us northern hemisphere hand-wringers who salve our consciences by pretending to care. I've visited factories in east Africa that are powered by forest trees, piled up in huge heaps in the compound and fed into the boilers and I've lost track of the new PET bottle or poly bag or jar or bottle blow-moulding factories I've seen announced with a fanfare in local newspapers.
And you see this as a good thing? Perhaps the hand-wringers are right, and those that destroy the forests are wrong. Seems like a heck of a roll of the dice, win, you get a bit more money, lose, and what planet do we live on?
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
What did I write to give the impression that I approve of all that? Short-termism is the word's greatest problem in so many ways.
 
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