Originally Posted by
azepine00
while I agree that the main driver is cost saving it doesn't take away environmental benefits - larger bottles are easier to recycle and they use less plastic.
For the sake of simplicity
imagine a cube 10x10x10 cm with 1l capacity - total surface area 600 sq cm
imagine 1000 small cubes 1x1x1 of 1 ml capacity - total surface area 6000 sq cm
10 fold difference of surface area partially offset by thickness. Then you have 1000 small caps vs 1 large pump piece.
Obviously shapes and actual sizes will vary but the trend is the same.
But 1000 1ml Containers do not equal the amount of shampoo in 1 1L container. Shampoo containers are not 1 mL.
Anyway the typical shampoo container is 30 ml.
So your comparison of 1,000 small bottles to a single 1 L bottle is is not really relevant. I am comparing amount of product for amount of product. x small bottles = 1 1 L container. It would be more like 33 small bottles to a single 1 L bottle (compare amount of product to amount of product). Because again those 1 L bottles are not being refilled; they are being replaced when empty (at least, at some of the chains).
So the surface area of the small containers would really be 200 sq cm. So actually the small containers use less surface area than the 1 L bottle which as you note above is 300 sq cm. And as you note above the 1 L bottle is thicker.
This also does not take into account people may be more likely to use more product out of a large dispenser vs. use it more conservatively from the little single use containers (especially users who do not get daily maid service). And if more product is used that means more plastic waste is generated.
How much more plastic waste is getting generated by big body wash bottles replacing the old soap bars? A ton. Again negates any benefit here, for the environment.
Also not sure about easier to recycle. In theory they should be. But I am not so sure in practice. By the time these reusable bottles are used and abused they are going to be in such poor condition with gunk on the sides/edges/bottom/back dried on that they will probably end up straight in the trash since these things need to be free of product/gunk in order to be recycled. Actually could see those dirty bottles causing significant damage and contamination to recycling facility plastics or equipment causing even larger batches of plastic not to be able to be recycled, if these are mixed in there. So again that also hurts the environment more.
As another poster above mentioned if they truly cared about the environment and were truly being "green" they would have gone with compostable single use bottles and it would have been a win-win because you eliminate ALL of the plastic waste plus you keep the product sanitary between guests. But they didn't. Those cost too much. Because this isn't about the environment. This is about cutting costs.