Ten green bottles

I’m asking because I just discovered this week that when you’re out drinking, you can save the environment at the same time.

First of all, let’s be clear – being drunk does not make you eco-friendly by default. I refuse to be the instigator of whole swathes of students staggering around campus at lunch-time, saying that it’s for the good of the ozone layer. Nor am I saying that, having reached paralytic levels of drunkenness, now is the time to take it upon yourself to do the recycling. It’ll only end in tears, and probably in a lot of pizza boxes in the bottle bank, and no-one wants that. Hell hath no fury like a College Eco Rep scorned.

While you’re out though, there are things you can do to be more eco-friendly, even if it won’t make you feel less hung-over in the morning. Well, maybe it could. One of my flatmates is in the process of trying out every hangover cure known to mankind – most of them including raw eggs and vinegar; a winning combination every time, I’m sure – but maybe a guilt-free conscience might help? Okay, so probably not. At least the polar bears will appreciate it, and it’s got to be better than the raw eggs thing.

So when you’re out in a bar, the first time you buy a drink, stop and think about it. And when I say think, I mean a little harder than deciding whether or not you want a straw with it. Incidentally, you should always want a straw. Who doesn’t want to blow bubbles in their drink? Don’t try to act like you don’t - I’m not fooled. Anyway, when you ask for your first drink, think about whether you want something on tap or from a bottle. Tempting as bottles of vodka mixed with neon-coloured ‘fruit’ flavoured juice are, a bottled drink is far more likely to harm the environment than something you get on tap.

Tempting as bottles of vodka mixed with neon-coloured ‘fruit’ flavoured juice are, a bottled drink is far more likely to harm the environment than something you get on tap.

Your average glass furnace produces over 400 tonnes of glass, including bottles, every day. In the UK alone, there are currently 30 furnaces for glass container manufacture, and they produced 1.9 million tonnes of glass between them in 2003. That’s a lot of tonnes. So, now consider the fact that making just one tonne - particularly if it’s being made from raw materials, not recycled glass - can produce up to 185kg of CO2.

I know maths can be strenuous on a Monday morning, but I’m sure you can see what I’m getting at here. The amounts of energy used and CO2 produced in the glass industry are massive, and it’s all to get the bottle of something you might not even remember having.

It’s true that some bars do go out of their way to recycle the bottles they have, but not all of them do it, and unless you want to ask your friendly bartender whether they’re recycling the bottles or not, you’re safer going for something on tap. It’s hard enough as it is to ask for what you want over the top of the music, without having to add directions to the nearest bottle bank before you do it. Also, I can’t tell the difference between left and right even when I’m sober, so the bartender would no doubt end up wandering a dead-end alley somewhere. Hardly helpful to their recycling technique, or my vocal chords.

Once you’ve asked for whatever you’re having, here’s another tip: keep the glass. If you haven’t just been fobbed off with a plastic cup, then the glass has to get washed before they hand it out to someone else. At least, you would hope. If and when they do wash the glasses, they have to do it every couple of hours – and that’s a lot of pollutants going down the drain. Fairy Liquid might be soft on your hands, but it’s not soft on the waterways you’re rinsing it out into. On the other hand, if you keep the glass and ask them just to keep filling it, then that’s one glass instead of twelve per person. Not that I’m accusing students of drinking a lot, or anything.

And lastly, the thing I forgot to mention: house parties. The main disclaimer this week should probably have been that I’m writing this whole article in a pair of fairy wings, because my house is hosting a fancy dress party. If you too find yourself in this situation – the house party, not the fairy wings – then don’t forget: when you come down the next morning, all the bottles strewn across the floor will look a lot better in the recycling bin. It probably won’t do anything about the mysterious stains on the carpet, though.

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