SACRAMENTO, CA — Last year alone, more than 93 billion plastic water containers wound up in US landfills, causing some to encourage more plastic water bottle recycling during the holidays, The Associated Press (AP) said in an article reported by the Herald-Tribune.
Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, health-conscious Californians alone will toss about 100 million bottles into the trash, the state's Department of Conservation estimated. That's enough plastic to provide holiday shoppers with 48,000 fleece sweaters, 220,000 T-shirts or 220,000 square feet of carpeting — all alternatives to putting the bottles in dumps, where the material lasts indefinitely, the article said.
California's Conservation Department is offering holiday shoppers an online national "green gift guide" that it hopes will encourage consumers to not only recycle but to buy recycled products, spurring more use of recycled material by manufacturers, the AP said.
Birkenstock Footprint Sandals Inc. offers socks and Petsmart a dog bed made from clear plastic recycled bottles. Every fleece vest made by Point Beach Outdoors of Rising Sun, IN, consumes about 26 plastic water bottles, the article stated.
All are showcased in the gift guide, along with tables, pillows, jewelry and glassware, even a kayak. Scott Radcliffe, a spokesman for the Birkenstock, said that mention in the state catalog "brings a lot of awareness in California and even at the national level."
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