Warm-up assignment

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Journal Entry For

Warm Up Exercise

I was thinking for long on which product I should take
I tried the idea of e-bikes with solar panels, but I found that they will never produce the necessary energy to charge an e-bike due to their small surface area
After that, I was sitting in my room and wondering which product I could make more sustainable

I had a protein shake from fairlife on my desk, and I was wondering if I could add sustainability to that product, since it is one of my favorite drinks
I was thinking about the protein shake, and although it is very processed, it doesn’t have a major impact on the environment
Then I looked at the bottle and realized that it was mainly made of plastic
I never really looked at it specifically, but most of our bottles are actually made of plastic

It is widely known that the problem with plastic is that it is not recyclable
Although there are bioplastics, which is basically recyclable plastic, most bottles are made of normal plastic due its lower production cost
The problem is that there are so many plastic bottles that are not recyclable, that they are piling up in the seas
This results in pollution of the ocean, which results in the death of fishes and ocean plants

The idea is to make bottles out of another material to ensure that they are biodegradable and can be recycled
I researched for a bit and found that cardboard is a good alternative
Since cardboard is not waterproof, you will still need to have a thin layer of plastic inside the cardboard to ensure that the liquid stays inside
The thin plastic layer would keep the liquid inside while the cardboard would make the bottle robust
The cardboard and the plastic are two different layers and are not chemically mixed together, which makes it easier to recycle
Although you still need to include plastic, it is much less than what a normal plastic bottle would have
You could technically use bioplastics for the thin layer to make it even more recyclable, but this would result in the bottle being more expensive, which is a tradeoff most consumers wouldn’t make
After more research I also found that cardboard is very cheap, which makes it even better to use