For discussing recycling.

25 responses total.

Over some time I have accumulted a bag full of empty bottles for 
prescription medicine (all for various capsules). These are type 5 
plastic. AA recycling accepts only types 1 and 2 plastic bottles, and the 
Scrap Box says NO medicine bottles. It seems a waste to throw away such 
fine, clean, empty bottles. Is there a way to recycle or resuse them? I've 
already saturated my need for such bottles.

Jim likes to save lots of empty bottles to keep things in, such as spices.
You can buy bulk spices at various ethnic food stores very cheaply.  You can
also take the bottles back to the drug store and ask for refills.  I think
they put on a different cap.  You can carry olive oil around in little bottles
to put it on Zingerman's bread ends when you picnic there in the nice sunny
table with the southern exposure by the back door, which is 10-20 degrees
warmer than surroundings if the sun shines (brick wall heats up too).  You
can put computer screws into them.  

One of the charity lists that I am on has a person that collects used Rx
bottles.  You can send them to her at:  OnlineAngels, 36 Pine Drive,
Pottsville, PA 17901.  The need to be clean and have the label completely
removed.

The OnlineAngels website mentions that but gives no address. But, isn't 
there somewhere local where the bottles/vials can be recycled? Perhaps all 
the schools and such places are already saturated with bottles for arts 
and crafts. The fact that the Sxrap Box doesn't want them suggests that.

Re #2: Like Jim, I also save empty bottles, and use a lot in my shop and 
laboratory. But there IS a limit to how many it is useful to save. as I 
said..."I've already saturated my need for such bottles" (and then some). 
These bottles come from online pharmacies and they don't ask for them 
back..

Plastics are made from petroleum or natural gas and if I recall correctly, 
amount to about 3% of the use of those resources. There is an enormous 
waste stream from just packaging/containers made of plastics. A lot of 
this, like many bottles, are just as useful after use as when new. It is 
just the lack of an economic collection system that prevents their reuse.

We throw out a lot more plastic that you do - printers, modems, and other
cases of things.  :
/that/than/
Can you ask the drug companies to send things out in cardboard boxes instead
of plastic bottles?

I included the address in #3.  You have to go a couple of pages into the site
to find it.  I had it from another charity group I belong to.  They are one
of our monthly charities.

Re #5: those plastic items don't have further use as they are. 

Re 5: I doubt the drug companies would use cardboard boxes instead of
plastic bottles for at least two good reasons: protecting children 
(child-proof cap) and increasing the shelf life of the product (by
protecting it from humidity). 

Mailed products don't need shelf life.  They can be bagged in plastic too.

Is it conceivable that the medicines could be shipped in simpler packages and
put into the child-and-environment-proof bottles the users have just emptied?

When I was sick I was too weak to open the child proof bottles so I just left
the caps off.  I suppose I could have used ziplock bags.  Most households
don't have small children in them.  

Lots of drugs are sold in blister-packs but that is also lots of plastic.
I don't know why anyone who uses a car cares about small amounts of plastic.

You can say "I don't know why some who uses X cares about small amounts of 
Y" until nothing is done about anything. You have to take action where 
action is takeable. Cars could be simplified too, and perhaps will be when 
the Peak Oil and Global Warming and Population Bomb get serious enough.

Why don't you stop using a car, and walk, bike, or take the bus?  That would
accomplish a lot more than worrying about Christmas trees or small plastic
bottles.

Because my personal and professional lives require the use of a car. 

So rearrange your personal life to let you go places without a car.  You live
on a bus route.  A gallon of gasoline weighs about the same as 7-8 lb of
little plastic bottles and pollutes a lot more.  Buy your prescription drugs
from a local pharmacy that you can walk or bike to.

They'll sell those drugs in little plastic bottles too.

You seem to be suggesting that reuse and recycling is not worth doing if 
one owns and uses a car. I don't agree with that.

You are also the one favoring reuse of practically anything that has a 
use, but for some reason are now excluding bottles from that.

But why are we, two people that in our own ways favor recycling and reuse, 
getting into an argument about our differences in those regards? This 
seems counterproductive.

Why should I have to buy my Rx drugs from a high priced storefront instead
of a less expensive mail-order?  I don't know about Rane, but our Rx insurance
encourages buying drugs for chronic conditions in 3 month supplies from
mail-order.  They encourage it enough that even though we get a discount on
our co-pay if we get them in 3 month quantities, the only pharmacy that they
will allow us to use the discount is the MSU pharmacy.  If I try to fill it
at any other place they will only allow a 1 month supply.  One of the drugs
that I take daily costs about $300 for a 3 month supply for the generic
version, my co-pay for that is $30.  If I get it at the local WalGreens or
CVS it would cost me $45 for 3 months but I would have to go pick them up once
a month rather than once every 3 months.  If I got them mail order they would
be delivered to my door at the $30 for 3 months.  No extra cost to me for car
or bus to pick up and the mailman does the route everyday whether I get a
delivery or not, so no extra cost there either.

I know it costs extra to buy drugs locally if you have health insurance that
covers drugs and want a 3-month supply.  I am pointing out to Rane that if
he really wanted to not acquire more plastic bottles he can do so.  K-Mart
and/or Village Pharmacy agreed to refill my bottle.  Also that I think he
should concentrate on changing aspects of his life that have more
environmental impact than the little bottles.  Buy food in bulk from a buying
club.  Even recycling containers wastes the fuel needed to move them around
and remake the containers into other boxes or jars.  Don't purchase reading
material, borrow from the library, or get your news electronically.  

We have the same type of prescription service through UM's MCARE, although
the mail order drug provider is Walgreen (just shifted over from CareMark).

But....what do you do with all the emptied bottles, Glenda? 

Caremark used bottles with screw caps. Walgreen used vials with push-on 
caps. There is a big difference in the type and amount of plastic in each 
as well as alternative uses for them. I'm likely to discard the vials with 
less regret than the bottles, though I think there should be a 
recycle/reuse program for both.

So... how about Michigan adopting a deposit on water and wine-cooler and 
other such containers, like that for softdrinks and beer?

So far we are still keeping them.  With STeve's little electric parts and my
crafting supplies we are sort of keeping up with them.  I have found that is
it cheaper to buy my beads in stranded form rather than the smaller vials.
I use Rx bottles to store them in when I take them off the thread to use them.
That alone will take most of the bottles that we will acquire for the next
year or three.  When we start getting a surplus I will either send them on
to the Online Angels or look for something similar around here.  The Angels
give them to free clinics.  Other people on my lists give them to the girl
scouts, boy scouts, boy/girl clubs, etc. for use in their crafting.

re #1
Those are good for slide guitar. You might want to drop them off at the local
music shop.

How are they used for slide guitar? As the slide? These bottles are #5, 
polypropylene (PP) and the sides flex, so are not as rigid as the drug 
vials made from polystyrene (PS) (#6). Is PP useful?

Would someone please retitle this item 'Reduce, reuse, recycle?'.  Rane, I
suggest you sell your power mower, and the reduction in fuel waste and
pollution will more than compensate for your plastic vial usage.  Power mower
engines are particularly polluting, as well as horribly noisy, and your
neighbors will probably thank you as you are putting out your annual small
bag of vials in the trash.

You are really getting on my case, aren't you Sindi?

Then I'll suggest that you reduce, reuse and recycle by moving to the country
and live in a tent, grow your own food, and chop wood for heat. 

Wood heat is inefficient and polluting, tents are very poorly insulated.  We
know someone who spent the winter trying to heat a tent with wood.  Wood smoke
is very bad for your health.  We have a farmer friend who gives us the things
he can't sell and we provide him with electronic equipment, clothing, and
other things that grow at the curb in cities.  

Jim's electric bill was a whopping $60 for each of the last two months because
he runs a dehumidifier in the basement and has not gotten around to insulating
the basement walls in 23 years so we lose a lot of heat through the basement
from the electric space heaters.  He also keeps turning the heat up to 55 and
forgetting to turn it down at night.  My apartment is too warm because the
upstairs neighbor must be heating to 75 all the time (one of  my rooms hit
65 last week).  Before she moved in my electric bill was up near $20 because
I have an electric foot heater under the desk (and also a refrigerator, stove,
and computers and lights).  

We don't purchase things in recyclable containers very often because melting
down the metal or glass is energy intensive. We buy our food in 50 lb bags
and reuse the bags to sort recyclables generated from people giving us old
printers to recycle, most recently a 120lb HP laser printer, mostly metal.
I think we remove more from the waste stream than we put in.  

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