Tethered plastic caps

Funnily enough that directive talks about sustainability, reduction of single use plastics and whatnot. And connected bottle cap is there as a stop gap measure to prevent ocean pollution. But manufacturers stuck to that as be all end all solution. The rest of the directive be damned.

Lol too true

Right? What other possible materials could they use? Prior to plastic, we just cupped our hands and had people pour beverages into them, or directly into our mouths.

Plastics have been revolutionary in keeping our hands and faces from getting sticky. I, for one, refuse to go back to the days of sucking off the tap.

There are a few things they could try. You can get biodegradable bottles, you could use glass or metal, there are cardboard bottles and silicon and even ceramic.

You could also change the way we buy these drinks from bottles we buy and throw away to containers we keep and refill from dispensers. The infrastructure isn't there for it, but with the amount of money the major drinks companies make its not unreasonable to assume they could afford to implement it.

And arguing that these alternatives are not practical is a wasted effort because an alternative IS needed to stop mass plastic waste and protect the environment so we need to get used to the bar being set at a different height.

Glass bottles with pop tops

plastic is cheap i guess?

The plastic liners in and on tins and cans - referred to as lacquer in the industry - don't impact recycling. When the tins are heated to thousands of degrees for recycling, what is left of the plastic liner, the inks and UV materials; is separated and basically skimmed off, leaving the metal.

https://ekko.world/plastic-lining-on-beverage-food-cans/226751

Aluminium cans have a thin plastic liner inside them that's almost impossible to recycle

Confidently incorrect as a motherfucker.

You're saying without hesitation that one of the most recycled and recyclable materials ever created is flat out not recyclable. What the fuck?

Um, aren't tires like 99.9% rubber?

Making brand new ones from raw sand/ore isn't great when you consider the need to mine and refine those into something useable. Lots of energy and effort goes into that part. The difference is that glass and aluminum are essentially infinitely recyclable, while plastic is often not. It takes way less effort and minimal input of new resources to recycle a glass bottle. Hell, with a robust bottle return system you can skip over the recycling part entirely - just send them back to the bottling facility to be cleaned and refilled.

Well, glass bottles can be washed and reused. The beer industry does this as standard practice.

Glass and aluminum are easier to recycle. Actually recycling these two materials are an order of magnitude easier and cheaper than new material.

Plastic can be recycled, but has a faster degradation rate and the infrastructure isn't present on the scale of glass and aluminum.

So. In Norway we have this great system for returning used bottles for cash. We get 0.2$ for a 0.5 liter bottle. People are returning the bottle with the cap on. Seeing bottle caps laying around isn't a thing.

Instead of attaching the cap to the bottle. Make a return system for the bottles. People are not systematically seperating the bottle and the cap as the cap keeps the sugary residue left inside the bottle in place instead of in the bag you carry them with to the store for returning them for that sweet cash.

Attaching the cap is a solution looking for a problem.

Having travelled a lot around in Europe I have never seen bottle caps laying the street alone. People throw them together or not at all.

This is bureaucracy time spent on caps instead of actual problems. So they could focus on actual issues instead of this shit. It's a testament to how they blame every issue on random people instead of the industries inventing new ways to fuck up any ecosystem.

You know what would fix that problem? Not using plastic. It doesn't actually get recycled no matter what doodad they attach to it.

Exactly i feel like people are becoming too weiny and easily irritated maybe because of the decline of quality in life due to capitalism ?

I mean you can also get reusable metal straws the same as a reusable vape.

Unless we remove plastic from the environment entirely, this is the smallest band-aid available on a massive gushing chest wound.

But isn't the tether still too thin and fragile to remain connected forever?

If you drop a tethered cap on the beach, a few weeks in the sun, getting polished by sand, and that cap is seperating from the ring, and how does that fix the problem?

Pour it from the opposite side to where the cap is attached. That way the awkwardness of pouring the liquid over the attached cap is a none issue. I can only assume that's what you've been trying to do.

jesus christ

this is what you think about: the little plastic points on your plastic soda bottle from where you tore the plastic cap off

Which is weird, since I have never seen anyone dispose of a screw-on lid improperly. It‘s always just the caps to glass bottles you see lying around.

Here is what makes no sense to me - if someone throws the caps on the ground, wouldn't they be less likely to put the bottle in a recycling bin as well?

Pretty much, yeah.

If only there was water coming straight from a pipe into your home…

Ok, so "pull tabs"are what you see on like cans of SPAM?

You can bend them out of the way and they don't break off I find that really useful.

Especially for bottles and cartons that are poured into a glass.