Plastic Container Recycling

nice idea if it could work to the stores benefit. Just think about the isle you get your detergents from where will we put the bulk dispensers. Can't remove the packaged stuff. Some one will damage their container and need another. Okay so the store sells containers to be filled. They will have to have product labels to put on them. Now its down to policing the isles. Spills will be a problem some of the chemicals don't mix well. Whats to stop some one from putting a $ 9.00 a gallon product in a bottle that marked for a product at $ 3.00 a gal. So you just lost all you savings paying the wage of the person that is policing that isle. May even cost you more.

At one time some stores tried bulk foods that you could fill your bags with. I think that it went away because of contamination worries. Whether contamination was accidental or intensional it is not some thing the store management wants to worry about.

Then there is this guy not so brite he has some heavy cleaning to do at home so he mixes bleach with ammonia that should do the trick.

Whats up ozzb,

In my vision the manufacturers containers are not eliminated they are just given the option of using a container previously used for that same product each brand will have there own refill stand with precautions taken for spillage/fraud (smart bottles) and the human factor. I'm strictly looking to reuse containers for the same exact product, or they can buy a whole new container if need be.

~The consumer approaches the stand reaches into a paper bag(they brought from home) retrieves an empty bottle of Tide places it in the dispensing unit he/she is prompted to choose w/wout bleach, Mountain Fresh or Ocean Breeze scent, the machine has already determined the fill capacity based on the dimensions of the bottle or through a communication with a chip embedded during the blow molding process and the price is reset accordingly on the scu tag laser printed on the side or a new tag is printed out for the consumer. The consumer goes home and marvels to their friends about the price of a gallon of tide these days.~

No good?

It's not that I think the idea is bad. It's just that I think it puts to much liability on the store owners for them to accept. You have the cost of the dispensers. The logistics of moving these bulk containers around and where to put them the stores are not that big. The Tide dispenser will need to draw the product from some where same as the scents and the bleach. If the Tide comes in 55 gal drums where will we put them. Look at the multitudes of products in just this isle. Then there is the dispenser which is now mixing the flavors. They have to be kept calibrated.

of course in developing countries like india it happens (due to poverty), selling the waste plastic for recycling there is no need to reinvent it.

In the UK, CoSHH applies. Therefore the store would be within its rights to refuse to dispense kitchen worktop cleaner if the only empty container presented for filling were a 1L milk bottle. The result would be chaos and reduced sales.

In third world countries it is already done , were you go to market with your own bags and get all those soaps , detergent , grains,cereals in paper bags and bags depending on weight and volume for liquid oils.even that is changing as plastics gets cheaper with respect to paper

I believe it is a great idea and would help to return us to a society where less plastics are generated and disposed of as waste. Quite a number of products were available during WWII in this manner; of course, plastics werent as available then. I think the packaging manufcturing firms would probably lobby against it for obvious reasons, but the use of bulk shipping to stores might also help reduce both the shipping and handling costs. It might reduce the competitveness of the products though, since the supermarkets would have to put in additional facilities.

The savings would be eaten up by the infrastructure of dispensers, special transport of the larger qty's hazardous materials & smart containers. The manufacture would lose 1 level of quality control & reduce some of the advertising value of the packaging as they wear.

This a good idea!

Whole Foods or Trader Joes can appriceate & market the green aspects of your proposal, finding the right product would be key?

Garthh,

I agree that this concept would have some definite hurtles to overcome to be widely accepted and Traders and Whole Foods would be more willing to embrace such an idea, I know they both carry some specialty olive oils but there all in glass bottles so that leaves us with juices and there limited cleaning product selection.

Just had a thought, I've seen that ionized water cleaning product that's advertised to clean as well as bleach (can't vouch for credibility) that might be a company that would consider such an application, or maybe start a brand new cleaning product company (with an aggressive ad campaign) that never has containers just what you show up to the store with, or take the ice cream mans business model and provide a mobile refill service, ok thats a little far out there, I'm just spitball'n here.

JJ

There was another thread round here about using glass instead of plastic. really about the problems w/plastic.

maybe a nice little automated system to inspect, clean & refill your beers, juice, water....... while you shop.

could even relabel replace defective.....

love to bench engineer [spitball]

so keep 'em coming

charge 25 cents for each plastic bag, not a refundable deposit. See how fast that work.

This is being done in many places, as the BEEB reported recently

glass bottles are the answer I think. easily recyclable and they could be reused the same way as milk bottles or lemonade bottles where they are refilled by the manufacturer or local representitive. A deposit on the bottles would ensure collection and reuse.

Either way, less plastic as it is removed by not using in the first place. Or could we invent a compostable package?

Aldis and Nettos charge for bags here, I take the trolley to the car and fill my old tesco bags in the boot (I don't get green points though) but when I go to Tesco or Somerfield who provide free bags I use them. (They get reused as bin liners). If it's free I will take it (even though it's not really and I pay in other ways, I know). Price is a major factor and I'm tight, if other supermarkets started charging I would rethink my behaviour. Not everyone is the same however. After cost comes convenience, packaged vegetables cost more but are easier to pick up and put in the trolley, so that's what people do. Human nature eh?

Your are right on the issue of paying for that extra penny which doesn`t do any good for you and environment only for manufacturers of plastics , you cannot neglect packaging charges for every product that needs shell life and preservation , but that can be reduced to more than half , you count your yearly budget by neglecting plastic packaging and result is you save or earn quiet reasonable amount that will make you happy and spare the environment a bit......thank you

selling loose goods is a great idea, I remember going shopping with my Mom and this was the way it used to be these days in the UK you have to contend with: http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38611.html

Yes, I once bought 5 pounds of loose flour, 1 dozen shelled eggs, 1 pound loose raisins, 1 pound of loose chocolate chips, some yeast and some water. bagged them up and biked home. By the time I got home they were ready to bake...:)

lose is also good for halloween. 1 cup of popcorn and 1/2 cup of butter poured into each kids' sack will flavor the lot.

Might attract unwanted attention from irate parents, with happy sticky kids...

different products react differently with plastics. You have to rely on the public to actually think. bad idea.

Some bulk food places allow you to buy things like soda-pop in your own containers, also honey. But not household chemicals.