I wonder how much this possible legislation will help to bring industry and jobs to California? http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti ... id=8334190

I wonder if it will increase Wal-Marts profits by only being able to sell the more expensive coolers?

Styrofoam is not economically recycleable. Our city quit a couple years ago. The stuff piles up in the dumps. There are good alternatives. I hate styrofoam because it is a pain to get rid of now. Anyone that wants it, lobby your state to take ours.

At about 6 cents per 20oz Styrofoam versus 13 cents per 20oz Biodegradable plastic, I would hardly think you would lose enough profit to have to cut an employee. Prices of food fluctuates all the time, well, mostly goes up. You reprice your goods, or take a hit somewhere.

My father owned a restaurant years ago with quite a bit of take out orders. You might push 100 or so sodas out a day with a meal. That amounts to losing about 7 or 8 dollars a day. Also, once more people start buying the biodegradable cups, the cost typically comes down.

I'm not for hindering business, but we need to not crap in our nest.

_________________
Jason
-I don't know if I'm alive and dreaming, or dead and remembering.

"Chuck Norris can speak braille."

Funny how things go, when Styrofoam first appeared it was hailed by environmentalists' as a tree saver. I wasn't wondering so much about individual restaurants as I was shipping departments at various manufacturing facilities. Or factories that make Styrofoam products, or products where Styrofoam is integral to a product's construction. The marine industry, or businesses which carry large inventories of Styrofoam products such as building supply centers...etc.

My objection to Styrofoam is practical. I am ok with it in permanent or semi permanent uses. It is the quick / one shot uses where it is my responsibility to dispose of it. We can put it in landfills, but that is about it here. I like the corn starch peanuts, they are fun to play with and easy to dispose of. Probably a bad choice of hot beverage cups.

If it were up to me, I would burn all the plastic and rubber refuse people complain about and generate electricity. There wouldn't be any in the landfills.

Burning plastics and rubber might not exactly be good for the air.....especially around the immediate area. All kinds of nasty stuff gets released. Burying is preferable in this case......although maybe some kind of capture can be done.

Personally I'm all for things going back to glass containers. Coke seem to taste better thats for sure. And note how beer has failed to go to plastic.....just not the same.

_________________
Jason
-I don't know if I'm alive and dreaming, or dead and remembering.

"Chuck Norris can speak braille."

Actually, I think by using some of our "modern technologies" we could get the burn efficiencies well into the 90% range while stack scrubbers would take care of a large portion of what's left. So most of the burn would be CO2 and water...plant food. That's a good thing. In any case, man's contribution to the atmosphere, (of the bad stuff) if we figure about 10,000 years of production, would be roughly equivalent to one decent volcanic eruption. I just don't see the down side to using this stuff to produce energy.

Yes, you're right about the glass.

Glass is REALLY expensive to manufacture. It also NEVER biodegrades. Really it's worse for the environment than many plastics.

The local orange juice plant here in Bradenton (Tropicana) shut down the glass factory about 4 years ago.

I was involved with lots of breweries back when plastic bottles were first tried with beer. The savings would have been HUGE. However customers refused to adapt to plastic.

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
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Yeah...but it sure tastes better coming from glass...

Doesn't Japan encase their spent nuclear fuel in glass for just the reasons you mentioned?

Sure glass doesn't biodegrade but it does leach chemicals either. Also it much more recyclable than many plastics. What happened to the money you got paid for turning in your bottles......I was fairly young then but I seem to remember there being an amount printed on the bottle you got. Certainly an incentive to recycle them.

_________________
Jason
-I don't know if I'm alive and dreaming, or dead and remembering.

"Chuck Norris can speak braille."