I still remember that in the past, whenever we saw an elder drinking beer, we would quietly collect the empty beer bottles and take them to the store to exchange for money.
At that time, an empty beer bottle could be sold for 3 cents, but most of them were 5 cents for two, and selling beer bottles was an important source of funds for children at that time.
However, it is curious that no one collects empty beer bottles these days, and beer bottles have suddenly become worthless.
Why do you recycle beer bottles at that time?
In the 90s, "beer" gradually became popular throughout the country as a new type of beverage in mainland China, and people began to accept beer because it had a more unique taste compared to liquor.
Not only that, in that era of scarcity of materials, there were not too many drinks that could be accepted by the majority of consumers, and beer that was not too expensive became people's favorite drink in addition to liquor.
As the number of beer drinkers increased, many people saw business opportunities as a result, so there were many breweries brewing beer in one area at that time.
Gradually, the beer producers found an extremely embarrassing problem, although the amount of beer produced was enough, the beer bottles could not keep up with the market demand.
The reason for this is that the technology for making beer bottles was not mature enough at that time, and the process of making a qualified beer bottle was very complicated.
As a result, most of these beer brewers do not want to spend time and effort on making beer bottles, so they only produce alcohol, and as for beer bottles, they buy beer bottles directly from the manufacturers who produce beer.
Invisibly, there is a problem, because there are many manufacturers of brewing beer, so the output of beer can fully meet the market demand, but because there are few manufacturers of beer bottles, the beer bottles produced are completely insufficient.
In order to solve the problem of insufficient beer bottles, beer manufacturers began to try all means, as the saying goes, "the essence of solving the problem is to solve the problem from the source".
Gradually, some people found that the appearance of beer bottles was very different at that time, except for the different labels attached to the bottles, so they thought of making up for the lack of beer bottle production by recycling old empty wine bottles.
At the time, the price of a new beer bottle was about 8 cents, and the most expensive thing a brewery could do to recycle an old beer bottle from a vendor was about 7 cents.
By recycling old beer bottles, breweries can not only ensure timely shipments to meet market demand, but also save on the cost of beer bottles to a certain extent.
Where there is a profit, there will naturally be people who will find business opportunities, so a group of people who specialize in recycling beer bottles appeared, and these people made a difference by recycling old beer bottles and selling them in large quantities to brewing beer.
Therefore, at that time, adults would put the beer bottles neatly under the eaves every time they drank beer, and they were reluctant to throw them away, and every once in a while someone would buy these beer bottles.
At that time, children will also regard beer bottles as treasures, because in the eyes of children, they are not just a beer bottle, but something that can be exchanged for money or popsicles.
Time flies, time flies, as people's quality of life gradually improves, but for some reason the recycling price of beer bottles continues to decrease, until it is found that almost no one is willing to recycle beer bottles, what is the reason for this?
Why is there no one recycling beer bottles now?
In the past, most of the beer bottles in the mainland were recycled, but the reason here is that the technology is not up to standard, and making a beer bottle is not only costly, but also time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Nowadays, with the advancement of science and technology, the production equipment of all walks of life is constantly improving, and now it is very easy to make a beer bottle, and it is not only efficient, but also very low.
Compared to recycling, old beer bottles not only cost manpower when recycling, but also the bottles can be damaged by collisions during transportation.
After all, there are not as many breweries as there used to be, and they can recycle locally for local use, and today's breweries will ship beer all over the country in order to expand their sales, and if they are recycled, they will also have to bear high transportation costs.
Not only that, but if the manufacturer wants to use these recycled beer bottles, they have to clean and disinfect them before they can be refilled.
Because it is a recycled and reused wine bottle, there will naturally be some damage that is not easy to be found, and these damages will greatly reduce the strength of the wine bottle, so there is a risk of bursting the bottle when filling the wine, which increases a certain cost.
On the other hand, with the Internet becoming so developed, if people know which beer bottle manufacturer uses recycled beer bottles, it is likely to affect the reputation of the brewery and lose orders.
For this reason, manufacturers are reluctant to recycle old beer bottles.
Of course, unlike in the past, with the maturity of glass-making technology, today's breweries not only brew their own beer, but also make their own beer bottles.
And in today's era of extreme involution in the industry, beer manufacturers will spend some thought on the appearance of beer bottles in order to let consumers buy and remember their products, so the appearance of beer is very different.
In addition, the specifications of beer produced by various manufacturers are different, in the past, the standard was 640 ml, but now the capacity of a bottle of beer is exactly the same, there are 620 ml, 500 ml, 330 ml, etc., it is a variety of reasons that make the current beer manufacturers no longer willing to recycle beer bottles.
Since breweries are reluctant to recycle beer bottles, what are the discarded beer bottles that have been discarded for so many years, and is there really no one who recycles them?
In fact, there are still people who are recycling these discarded beer bottles, but because of the low recycling price and the fact that they are sold by the ton, only a very small number of people are collecting them.
epilogue
From the 90s when children searched for beer bottles on the street, and then sold them for money or "barter", to now they are worthless and no one wants to throw them on the street, beer bottles have witnessed the youth of a generation, and they are also the youth memories of a generation.
Nowadays, beer bottles have lost their value and are discarded casually, but this also brings great damage to the environment, so we can now create its own value, we can make it into flower pots, etc., or put it in its place and wait for others to recycle.
Sources:
1. National Standard for Beer Bottles - National Standard Information Public Service Platform 2020-10-10
2. "Beer Bottle" mandatory national standard for approval and publicity.大河网 2021-08-01
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