Milk bottles
I refer to the article on the delivery of milk in glass bottles ( Marlborough Express, Monday October 9). As the article says, this is an expensive option, but don’t be fooled (like the reporter Carly Gooch) into thinking you are doing the environment a favour – glass milk bottles are not very environmentally friendly at all:
- Plastic bottles can also be recycled (please don’t throw them in the rubbish);
- Glass bottles take a lot more heat and energy to manufacture and recycle than plastic bottles;
- Glass bottles can, of course, be reused, but it takes a lot of water to clean them. Hot water uses a lot of energy too. Is detergent used? And what about the cleaning effluent?;
- Glass bottles are much heavier than plastic ones so more fuel is used in transport;
- Round glass bottles do not pack into containers as well as square or rectangular plastic ones. This leads to further inefficiencies in transport and handling;
- Finally, glass bottles are very clear which means that your milk will go off quicker (especially if they are left at the gate).
Ryan Lock
Witherlea pronouncement. As everyone waits to see which party he will support into a ruling coalition, he is instead laying down some pronouncements on … carpets? He wants to rip up the carpets in Parliament House and replace them with wool. The reason: wool is on the nose, with demand for wool carpet dramatically falling from around 80 per cent a decade ago, to just 15 per cent today.
Hate to pull the rug out from under Mr Peters’ feet, but this carpet is not flying. New carpet in the ministerial offices was only laid last year, and ripping it up now is an extremely fiscally inefficient way to prop up a dying industry. He would be better off asking why the public has so decisively turned against wool. After years of having the wool pulled over their eyes, people have seen the abuse that goes on in shearing sheds all over the world, including a case in Canterbury where four men filmed themselves drunkenly shearing a sheep, resulting in deep cuts and blood dripping down her legs.
No amount of fluff can hide the fact that buying wool supports a cruel and bloody industry. There are plenty of durable, stylish carpets available that don’t originate in the follicles of tortured animals.
Ashley Fruno
Associate Director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia