Paper is an oft used material for all sorts of things, and can be recyled. Unfortunatly sometimes people don't bother recycling it. This idea offers a solution to this.
Instead of printing newspapers, advertisments, and other such mail on paper, print it on bread (or possibly some kind of cracker). Then once the information has been read, the letter can be disposed of accordingly. This may even combat the problems caused by people (students, I'm looking at you here) skipping breakfast.
It could even be used to replace packaging at fast-food resturants so that customers actually get some nutrition.-- TheCoat, Mar 07 2004 Sliced Bread Flipbook http://www.halfbake..._20Bread_20Flipbookby AfroAssault. [calum, Oct 04 2004] (???) Freshly Brewed Newspapers http://www.halfbake...Brewed_20NewspapersWould go quite nicely with this idea. [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004] I once read that the net impact on the environment of recycling paper was far higher than simply burning it. Not sure how easy it is to compare the two but it was an interesting thought.-- hazel, Mar 07 2004 "Say, this newspaper cone is empty!""The paper is your fish & chips."-- FarmerJohn, Mar 07 2004 <related aside> It's still not economical to recycle glass - still cheaper to make new rather than delabel, wash reheat and reblow. Sorry state of affairs. </aside>-- jonthegeologist, Mar 07 2004 [tsuka] trouble is, the immediate and the financial is all that can really be measured and is therefore what helps form decisions on recycling.-- jonthegeologist, Mar 07 2004 <aside related to related aside>Yet remove the "reblow" portion and it's quite economical. In places I've visited in Mexico, you return bottles to the place you bought them (or lose your deposit). They send them to the bottling plant which sanitizes and refills them. The result is ugly, worn-down, yet very inexpensive bottles. I believe the labels aren't a factor as they are etched right onto the bottles.</aside>-- Worldgineer, Mar 07 2004 [worldgineer] the main problem with the recycling of glass, as you've highlighted, is that after a few cycles, the glass is horribly bashed and incredibly unappealing.
My company has for many years recycled glass bottles and used them in distributing our soft drinks - in fact, we share bottles with our closest rival who does exactly the same. The net affect : both companies have slightly cheaper packaging, but neither bottle appeals to the consumer. The consumer wins, always - they (we) want to recycle, but don't want recycled looking packaging. Fickle, aren't they (we)?-- jonthegeologist, Mar 07 2004 If we could make these wastes edible for fish then you could truely have food for the mind.-- sartep, Mar 07 2004 I remember the days when bottles were re-used. They did get to be a bit unattractive at times. But, it was a good source of income for poor white trash such as myself. I spent a lot of time hunting for and picking up "pop bottles" when I was a kid. I believe the 16 oz bottles were good for a 10 cent deposit. The 32 oz. bottles were a rare and valuable find...15 cents, I think. Ah, the good old days.-- half, Mar 07 2004 The "deposit" bottle system is still firmly in place here (Germany). All beer bottles can be returned along with their crates (no sissy six packs for us!). You can, more or less, take any bottles or jars, glass or plastic, to the supermarket and feed them into a machine which either accepts them or (rarely) spits them back out. When you're done, the machine gives you a ticket with a bar code and you get refunded the deposit at the till. All works smoothly.
As far as I know the glass bottles get reused a few times (washed, disinfected, refilled) and then melted down for new glass. The plastic bottles just get sorted into plastics categories and melted down for reuse.
A can deposit system has recently been introduced but is absolute mayhem as they don't use the same system as for glass and plastic (god knows why). If you buy a can of pop from a motorway service station, you get given a ticket, which you must keep. You can then only return the empty can to the exact same service station that you bought it from and then only if you still have your ticket. Crazy.
Dairies in the UK that still use milkmen (doorstep delivery every morning - empties collected) have been reusing bottles for decades and I've never heard anyone complain about unsightly bottles. Never.
As for this post. I think one of the reasons that so little paper gets handed over for recycling is simple laziness. In the area of the UK where I come from there are paper collection areas, but you have to collect your paper, bundle it and take it along to the container. Where I am now, we just have a seperate bin for paper and it gets collected fortnightly and taken for recycling. No effort required. You just have to remember to bin it correctly. (In fact we have have a 4-bin system here. One for paper, one for plastics and similar, one for metal and similar and one for organic).
I agree with some other annotators, that it relies on a certain mindset, but you get used to it very quickly. When I return to the UK now, I am always rather shocked to see everything being chucked in one bin together, although I did it myself for long enough.
BTW. You would have to use edible ink as well as edible paper. Rice paper with food colouring print and egg-white glaze?-- squeak, Mar 08 2004 [rods_t] that's a good point you make. Walk into most pubs in the UK and behind the bar, you will see some small stubby bottles containing juices, tonics and colas. In the main, they will be horribly scuffed - what was once clear glass is now white. What you're looking at is a recycled glass bottle, used and reused by Coke and Pepsi many many times over. Each company just shares the bottles.
The trouble is, that the consumer looks at this bottle and interprets the scuffing with "old, damaged, not drinkable". The consumer expects a sparkly, crisp bottle and thus, the recycling of the bottles is reduced or stopped entirely.
This scuffing could be removed entirely by melting and reblowing, but as previously discussed, that makes the recycling process prohibitively expensive currently.-- jonthegeologist, Mar 08 2004 [squeak] you could use an entire range of food colouring I suppose, or burn the words onto the surface of the bread. "The Daily Toast", I can see it now.....Mmmmm.....
BTW I acknowladge that many people (such as myself) DO recycle paper, This is aimed at those who are lazy and irrisponsible. Also the paper bins in my area only seem to get emptied on a whim, longest count was about 3 months.-- TheCoat, Mar 08 2004 Grunge soda bottles. I like it.
Back to the idea - didn't we do this once? Or am I thinking of part of [bliss]'s coffee-ink newspaper idea?
(later)
What do you know - my anno, which was the first one. It was about doughnut dough though.-- Worldgineer, Mar 08 2004 You all have a point about the bottles, so mabye the same sort of idea can be aplied to bottles and cans. If you can find a foodstuff that is waterproof, insoluble and quite unreactive. Perhaps some kind of hardened Icing or sugar, with a glaze to prevent corruption of the taste of the drink. Then even if you don't want to eat the bottle (That would be a lot of sugar) then it can be thrown away safe in the knowladge that it can be eaten by any interested animal.
Imagine if we could replace all packaging this way, then all the sorting that holds back recycling (through lazyness, or stingyness) would be needless, as it is all food, hence, a communal compost heap would be established. For personal gardens, town gardens, floral displays, and such like.-- TheCoat, Mar 08 2004 random, halfbakery