 |
The biggest growth in bottled beverages isn't beer or soft drinks or juices; It's water.
Bottled water is the single largest growth area among all beverages, that includes alcohol, juices and soft drinks. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over the last decade. While the recycling rate is extremely low, the demand from recyclers is actually quite high.
These so called PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) containers (fizzy drink bottles, cordial bottles, cooking oil bottles), pile up as mountains of waste.
|
|
 |
Gasometers or gasholders--huge storage containers for the gas used in heating and cooking--were built in many cities during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, when gas was a commercial byproduct of coal mining, steelmaking, and other industrial processes. Today, many of the old gasometers have been replaced by pipelines and tank farms, but a few are being adapted to new uses.
|
|
 |
Current packaging is useful but also wasteful. Think of all the plastic and polystyrene containers that are just tossed away after opening the stuff you buy. Just In 2007, the UK alone disposed of an estimated 10.5 million tons of packaging waste. Because of its large volume, packaging waste tends to be very visible. Approximately 70% of primary packaging is used for food and drink which is often discarded in a dirty state and contaminated by residues of the original contents.
|
|
 |
Founded in 1993 by partners Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano in New York city, LOT-EK (pronounced low-tech) is noted for its inventive reuse of prefabricated objects and industrial materials. The firm is committed to ecologically responsible methods of construction, and incorporates unexpected elements such as oil tankers and shipping containers in its residential, commercial, and institutional projects.
|
|
 |
73 billion Styrofoam cups/plates and 190 billion plastic containers and bottles are thrown away every year. Medical evidence suggests that chemicals, as benzene & styrene in EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam are carcinogenic and may leach into food and drink. EPS cups, containers and plastic bags, are a major source of pollution on our beaches - especially after a rainstorm. EPS breaks down into small pieces, often mistaken for food by marine animals, birds and fish.
|
|
 |
Whether it's printer cartridges, beverage containers, cell phones, eyeglasses, plastic bags or clothing, recycling products benefits not just the environment but also pretty much everyone involved. Thanks to increased consumerism, discarded clothing for instance, finds its way into landfills at an alarming rate, including one million tons of the stuff each year in the UK alone.
|
|
 |
Worldwide consumption of disposable and single-use food/drink containers is estimated in more than 430,000,000,000 units per year, or about 140,000 each second. The majority of these units are made of EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) and are non-biodegradable and non-recyclable, requiring more than 200 years to begin even partial degradation.
|
|
 |
Recycling old shipping containers is both a green and affordable solution to housing crisis. The dry freight container, a standard used for transport over water, was introduced in 1956. The unit is used extensively for long distance hauling of goods over water. Trains and trucks can also easily transport merchandise using these metal boxes.
|
|
 |
Dairy farmers constantly struggle with the challenge of managing the troublesome odors and high nitrate content in cow manure. A pair of creative brothers from Connecticut has developed an innovative and environmentally sound solution to this problem, CowPots. Ben and Mathew Freund created a digestion and dehydration process to process the wastes. The remaining manure fibers are then formed into a variety of shapes and sizes to create the containers, which can be planted in the ground to fertilize plants.
|
|
 |
Vending machines that allow consumers to deposit used beverage containers. Instead of spewing out junk food, the machines invite people to insert their trash for recycling. Once a customer deposits a used container, the machine sorts it and crushes, compresses or shreds, reading a container's barcode to determine the type of material. They also dispense vouchers that can be exchanged for cash.
|
|
