Reusability

Instead of containers that are single use, we need to be given the choice to put down a deposit on a reusable container that’s available in a store where bulk items are presented.

As an example, at the local co-op, where we see salads for display, we currently see waxed paper containers as well as ceramic plates for eating salads in the store. Instead, we should be offered a reusable container like a glass container or a metal container so that we could put our items in that container, take them home, and then return the container and get our deposit back or we could keep the container and reuse it at home.

We should strive to reuse packaging and containers instead of recycling them. In our house, we tend to use the plastic bags that until recently were lawful shopping bags, to wrap around bread for instance, or to carry things to another place, or even for more mundane tasks. They tend to get used many times before I bring them back to Safeway for the American Chemistry Council to recycle.

Perhaps a really good analogy is with clothing. We wouldn’t consider wearing a shirt once and tossing it into a recycling bin so that it could be melted or unsewn into something else would we? No, we wash the clothes and wear them perhaps dozens perhaps hundreds perhaps thousands of times until the clothes are no longer able to provide their function, or they lose value to us either spiritually or aesthetically.

With proper design, we could convert single-use containers and packaging into reusable containers and packaging. The design will take into account all sorts of other problems associated with recycling now.

I was very impressed with the mason jar container that we were given for the hibiscus tonic that we got from the Blue Scorcher with a one dollar deposit. I brought that jar back, cleaned, and got my dollar back.

Using the principle of deposit and redemption, we could make almost all of the containers currently in use reusable either personally or community-wide. The goal should be a system that looks very much like the ecological systems out there, which cycle material and use an optimum amount of energy to continuously convert the material to the needs of the community. Dematerializing the economy is the goal.