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Faced with different state recycling laws, BottleHood takes matters into their own hands

By Rain Noe - February 2, 2011

in Object Culture

This may or may not surprise you non-Americans, but if you look at a drinks bottle from this country you'll see abbreviations printed on the label denoting which states will pay for that bottle to be recycled. Yep, it's different from state to state, meaning the same bottle may not be recycled as readily in Rhode Island as in New York.

BottleHood is a San-Diego-based organization made up of unnamed creatives (a jeweler, a weaver and a graphic designer) who "rescue" glass bottles that have no monetary recycling value under California regulations. Rather than see these hit landfill, BottleHood gives them a second life by turning them into drinking glasses and vases. Liquor bottles in particular seem to serve these purposes well from a graphic design standpoint.

To the BottleHood folks, if you're reading this and looking for ideas, there used to be a Belgian beer bar on St. Mark's Place in New York (now defunct, sadly) that had cool pendant lamps done by graphic designer Darren Amellio, the guy behind the original bOb bar. Amellio made them by chopping the bottom off of big-ass cider jugs and sandblasting the tops and damn were they pretty.

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Eduardo

13 years ago

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The company that does this in Mexico is called "Fabrica Ecologica" (eco-factory) and they hire only disabled people, it is a pro-social project. fabricaecologica.com. They are way cheaper.
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Speerdo

13 years ago

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There is a local glass forge here in Omaha, NE that does this. It's pretty neat and has inspired me to try it on my own. This is the ultimate in recycling.
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Juan

13 years ago

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This has been happening in Mexico for years. People reuse everything when there's not a lot of money. You see them for sale at the outdoor markets everywhere. All my glasses when I was in college in the 90s where from Bacardi bottles. Where I went to college, they manufacture VWs, and on the side of the road there are people selling bags of all types made with discarded upholstery and seat belts from the factory.
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Sue Gordon

13 years ago

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California has been able to achieve a statewide recycling rate of over 54% by passing a law in 1990 that required 50% diversion from landfills by 2000 and ongoing. The state put the compliance burden on cities and counties or else face fines of up to $10K per day of noncompliance. There is also a very strict reporting system so you must count every ton of trash disposed by city or county of origin. Counting trash by city is definately not a science so one wonders how accurate the slicing and dicing is. Given that most of our landfill rates are relatively cheap as compared to Europe ($29.95/ton in Orange County Calif, as compared to over $100/ton in Europe) it's is certainly cheaper to dispose than to recycle. It's the mandate and fines that make recycling & composting happen here. However, in Europe there are many other methods to handle nonrecyclable trash such landfill bans on certain materials, manufacturers packaging take-backs as well using trash as feedstock for waste to energy plants or other conversion facilities. In California the environmentalists will not tolerate alternatives to recycling. They do not want waste to energy or biofuel plants or other types of facilities constructed that would use waste that currently is landfilled. We could get to almost zero waste if they would agree to allow those facilities here. From their actions it appears they would rather the waste continue going to the landfill. So until they change their position, California will struggle with getting to zero waste. The rest of the states should follow California's lead by mandating recycling but taking that additional step to allow alternative technologies. I
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Duane Brown

13 years ago

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American's seem to be so far behind in terms of saving the planet.
You don't' even have basic recycling fees in place.. It's quite sad
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