You have to think bigger than vending machines. they are not the only access points to soda. if it’s a returnable bottle…people have to be able to get it at the supermarket, at the restaurant, off of street vendors, stadiums.
-I was defiantly thinking of this. there could be the 7-11 version that would replace their coolers filled with prepackaged drinks. I don’t know if I will have time in this competition to design every version but I can defiantly hint towards it.
-I really don’t know if I want to let the user provide their own container. this would kill my argument that it would increase profit for manufacturers. plus it would be harder to standardize the refilling mechanism. And branding is such a huge part of soft-drink culture. I can’t imagine coke would be happy with people drinking their product out of an anonymous thermos.
Note: Don’t just take into account the energy required to create steam, but everything from the cleaning solutions to energy losses from the power generation plant to the location of the end user. Even the creation of a long term durability container from mining raw materials to processing and fabrication should be counted vs. the energy costs for an equivalent number of short durability containers.
-This is a good point. I can’t imagine that the creation of steam will use more recourses than to produce a totally new bottle. Including transportation cost of raw materials as well as transportation of final product. But you are right. I need to back up my hypothesis with research. Anyone have any good places to find out real cost analysis of pop bottles?