Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Plastic Bottles Or Cans.

My husband drinks Coke, lots of it and that is not going to change.  I hate it as the 2 litre bottles are now over $4. each unless on special for $3ish.  He drinks quite a few each week.  He is paying out good money for flavoured sugar water and has no intention of stopping.  Are cans better?  I know they can be recycled but the bottles the Coke come in can be too.  I don't think it matters too much, they both end up littering he world and are not something anyone needs.   At the start of the PFJ challenge he bought a couple of cartons of coke in cans, so 3 or 4 dozen cans.  This Coke cost more per litre than the Coke in bottles and there ended up being more stuff on the floor inside.  Six or seven cans instead of 1 bottle...

And I am tight and decided that it wasn't worth paying the extra money for cans that were only bagged up and added to the pile and saved for some unknown time when they will be taken to a recycling place and cashed in.  So he went back to bying it in bottles.  Plastic bottles.

Last weekend we re-used 6 x 2 litre and 3 x 1.25 litre plastic bottles.   Husband has *pruned* our Bush Lemon tree and from the thousands of lemons saved from destruction and giveaways we now have litres and litres of lemon juice, stored in these bottles and frozen for whenever we need lemon juice like Summer time and cordial making to save a bit on all the Coke drinking.

Is that ironic?  Drink Coke to get the bottles to put Lemon juice in to make cordial so he wont have to drink so much Coke...

I have stock that needs freezing and the Coke bottles are good for that too.

I think we are getting better value from the bottles even though they are plastic but I could be kidding myself so I don't feel so bad about using them.   

The bottles that I dont re-use are sent away in the recycling bin but I don't know if they are really recycled or just dumped at the dump/tip.    What do you think is better?   The plastic bottles that I sometimes re-use or the dearer cans that might one day be recycled?


7 comments:

  1. I drink a lot of coke zero myself, and I usually buy cans if I buy anything as they don't go flat like the bottles do. However, 99% of the time now I use my sodastream to make coke zero. The taste isn't quite the same, but if you drink it for a couple of days, you get used to it, and it tastes fine. Saves on plastic bottles and cans, and you can just make it as you need it. You can get smaller 600 ml bottles too for taking in the car etc. I don't think it saves a lot of money, as by the time you buy the carbonating gas and the syrup, the cost isn't that much cheaper, but much better for the planet...

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  2. That IS ironic. I drink cans because the bottles go flat. Plus, I can grab a can, put it in my lunchbox cooler, throw in blue ice, and drink it later rather than buy a coke.

    I am not entirely comfortable storing anything in Coke plastic bottles. I freeze things like that in Ball canning/freezing jars. I don't drink cordials, but I do drink lemonade, make lemon curd. And, I do use lemon in cooking. So, I am very much envious of your lemon tree, envious is a good way.

    The cans are definitely more expensive, and often I only drink part of a can. I suppose I waste money, but I do consume less by wasting portion of the can. That makes no sense and is ridiculous. But, that's what I do. You are doing so much better.

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  3. It'll be good if you can get your hubby off coke. It is well documented that a tooth, or a piece of flesh, left in a glass of coke overnight, will start to decay the tooth or rot the flesh. Ikmagine whatlong comsumption of coke is doing to his internal organs...

    Nice re-use of the bottles though. I also use our empty 2lt milk bottles as cloches to protect my seedlings from frost / snails / field mice in spring.

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  4. that's a tough one both aren't that good ...cans you gets extra aluminum in your diet which isn't good for your health, plastic also leach into our foods...coke isn't good for his or any ones health...if he drinks it from cans does he drink less...all in all 50..50...even drinking lemon cordial isn't good for your teeth with all the citric acid...i've been very helpful haven't I ...lol...

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    1. well at least you can reuse some of the plastic bottles ...you can cut of the tops and grows herbs and start seedlings...put the top back on and have little mini terrariums...
      you can fill them with water for keeping food cold in esky's ...what can you do with the cans not as much...

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  5. We are lucky in SA that we can recycle our cans, bottles, cartons etc for 10c each. Good little money spinner if you need some extra cash...we fill two wool bale bags and take them in and usually yields us $130 -$150 dollars. Probably cash them in once or twice a year. We collect them in our travels, plenty of people still discard them. Where we go for our walk there is always plenty to pick up after a weekend :)

    I have to agree with the others about consuming sugary drinks, I don't buy have them so cant recommend either can or bottle. Sheree's advise is pretty good for reusing the plastic bottles. Coke can eventually make one very sick, and so can coke zero (has aspartame in it) and comes with it's own set of problems. My SIL had thyroid problems and she consumed loads of coke zero!

    Hope you find a answer that suits you best :)

    x

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  6. I too would like him to not drink Coke but that is not going to happen any time soon and I think I will get more use from the empty bottles than the cans. I would prefer he drank more cordial because it is homemade and cheaper even when bought...
    I will use some of these bottles this week to protect some seeds that I need to get planted.
    Thanks for all your comments.

    Barb.

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