Originally Posted by
Bicostal
I wonder if washing a bunch of 6 ounce glasses at the end of the night is more or less green than recycling plastic bottles?
It's much greener. For one thing, shipping Evian and Perrier from France uses a lot of fuel. Plastic is made from petroleum and recycling the plastic is not energy-neutral (although it's better than throwing the bottle away and making a new one.) So yes, washing is greener than recycling a bottle. But definitely greener than producing bottled water, shipping it, and then recycling it.