Does your local community already having problems with those ubiquitous PET and plastic mineral water bottles (are they the same?).  Most garbage cans in public places here are filled with them. Is there something somewhere that could turn these environmental hazards into something attractive and useful? I'm afraid they can't be reused for water.

Many countries are recycling the bottles. You basically get a certain amount of money when you return a bottle to a store. I know of several countries that have around 95% recycling of bottles. This might be an idea for other countries, then at least we willnot be wasting so much.