My close friends all know that I never go anywhere without a Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi in my hand, which is usually in the form of an aluminum can. Did you know that it can take 200 to 500 years for an aluminum can to disintegrate? Well, I just found this troubling news out. So for my next goal, I want to stop using aluminum cans.
While it would be nearly impossible for me to stop drinking Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, I want to switch from buying 12-packs to 2 litter plastic bottles as a start. While I know that plastic bottles aren’t a perfect solution, and still take a long time to disintegrate, they are better than the 12-pack of aluminum cans that I buy.
For starters, I will get a lot more out of the 2 litter bottles than I ever have in the aluminum cans. I will be able to pour out the perfect amount of Diet Coke into a reusable cup for myself, whereas I usually would grab an aluminum can and not drink all of it. Instead, I would have to just throw it out since it would go flat if I left it open. So in the end, I would be able to drink less diet coke and create less waste with the 2 litter bottles.
While some of you may be hesitant to believe that the 2 litter plastic bottles are actually better, I would like you to look at these facts from an environmental article I was reading earlier:
“The amount of petroleum used in making the 50-gram (g) and 2-liter bottle is around 325 g, and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions from its manufacture are around 825 g. An aluminum can made from virgin materials results in the emissions of 280 g of carbon dioxide. Does this mean that the can is better? Well, keep in mind that the bottle holds more beverage, so we need to take that into account. You would need to buy 5.6 cans, almost a full six-pack, to equal the volume of the bottle. The 5.6 cans would be responsible for 1,568 g of carbon dioxide emissions. So it looks like the 2-liter bottle results in about half of the greenhouse gas emissions of the equivalent amount of cans. Is this the end of the story? What about transportation emissions?
Let's assume that both beverage containers are filled in the same facility and shipped to the store with the same truck. The bottle weighs 2.05 kg when full (2 liters plus 50 g) and the 5.6 cans weigh 2.084 kg (2 liters plus 84 g). This means that the cans require slightly more fuel to transport than the bottles. That's two strikes against cans. How about a third strike? Soda bottles often find a second life in my favorite winter garments, as some clothing brands manufacture fleece in part from recycled plastic, which is melted into pellets and extruded into fine fibers. Try doing that with aluminum."
Usually, a 12-pack would last me less than a week. What is the point of wasting all of these aluminum cans if I don’t even drink everything inside of them? Why not just switch over to plastic bottles and allow myself to drink the amount of Diet Coke that I want, so that in the end I will be drinking less Diet Coke and producing less waste? While I will still be using a resource that has a long disintegration rate, I will be using less of it. I’m hoping that I’ll end up cutting my Diet Coke usage down, and solely use one 2 litter bottle per a week. Wish me luck.
P.S. If you want to check out the article I was talking about earlier go here: http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2008/01/28/ask_pablo_plastic
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