I am still wondering how come the EU requires member states to impose eco taxes on plastic bags and at the same time instructs soft drink manufacturers to distribute their product in transparent plastic bottles. Thousands of these bottles are disposed of and produced every day, adding significant pressure with regard to waste reduction in terms of plastic. Problems associated with these plastic bottles are the following:

• Chemicals may contaminate food and drinks in re-used plastic bottles.

• Re-used plastic bottles can leak toxic chemicals.

• Even plastic water and soda bottles should not be re-used.

• Millions of plastic bottles end up in landfills.

• Incinerating plastic bottles releases toxic chemicals.

These problems are explained in detail at http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/plastic_bottles.htm .

In addition, plastic is a material that takes a long time to degrade naturally and is not re-usable because it poses a hygienic threat.

Clearly, using plastic bottles means throwing into the bin two pillars of effective waste management: reduction and re-use.

I think glass bottles are much more environmental-friendly because they are very hygienic and re-usable. Therefore, in being re-usable, demand for bottle production would be reduced.

In addition, glass bottles degrade much faster than plastic ones because glass is produced directly from superheated sand.

In addition, sand is quite an inexhaustible resource while the oil used to make plastic is not.

Therefore, in the light of these obvious problems, can anyone provide an educated answer as to why the EU requires soft drink manufacturers to use plastic bottles?

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