That's an EU regulation, not a corporate measure. And it has drastically decreased the amount of littered bottle caps, so a good thing.
Littered bottle caps was a problem? Anyway, I hope they do cigarette filters next.
The caps was a problem yes. Not just littering, but also in sorting for recycling, where they'd often end up in the wrong place.
It obviously depends on where and how it's done, but the thing I've heard is that due to (the lack of) weight and size the bottle caps would end up in the paper badges, which would ruin the paper from being recycled. It's better if it follows the bottle. PET bottles (including caps) are shredded, washed and used for new bottles.
Same thing happened to the pull tabs on aluminium cans. Those used to be separate too.
I really like the can tabs. The plastic bottle caps annoy me because they make it harder to screw the cap back on. It needs a bit more innovation in my mind.
That’s an EU regulation, not a corporate measure. And it has drastically decreased the amount of littered bottle caps, so a good thing.
you should only be allowed to buy cigarettes if you can account for all your ciggy butts or pick-up an equal amount.
In Australia they have something called "report a tosser" people who are proven to have littered anything from cigarette buds to plastic bottles and more will be fined to hell and back.
Those float in the sea, we don't want that iiuc. Is a different plastic too, way more valuable from a recycling perspective (in Argentina hospitals used to collect caps to melt and make toys for childrens)
An EU regulation that was heavily lobbied for by Coca Cola.
Really? I never heard that before. What would they care about how their caps are? I can't see it having any impact on them at all. A lot of people got pissed about it when Coca Cola was one of the first to change the caps in line with the regulation, so if anything it hurt Coca Cola.
Also even though large corporations are almost always totally evil, it's not impossible for them to do something good as well. Probably not for the right reasons, but still, one thing doesn't exclude the other.
It perpetuates the myth of recycling and puts the onus on the consumer and state to recycle instead of the corporations to stop using containers that pollute the environment, will be in the environment for decades without breaking down, and is likely causing yet unknown harm in our bodies since plastic is inside all of us now.
The first of the "3 R's" is reduce but instead of that being the focus because it hurts their bottom line, they prop up recycling and sell the lie that we can keep living as is if we just recycle more and get better at recycling.
No idea why they'd want those tethered caps. My speculation (and that's 100% unfounded, so take it as you will) is that they are lobbying for something simple and cheap (tethered caps, plastic straws, etc), to blind people from the real environmental issues that are far more costly to tackle. Kind of like the plastic recycle logo, which is a total scam, but makes people feel good enough to not further question the big corps' recycling practices.
The only thing I can find in this direction is a letter from beverage companies (including coca cola) opposing these measures. But that's based on a very shallow google search, so take it with a grain of salt. Where can I find info about what coca cola lobbied for or against?
Can you show a link that supports that? Because I distinctly recall these companies opposing this measure.
He can't because it's not true.
This is a EU regulation and it's a good one.
it costs coca cola more to produce those attached caps than not, are you saying coca cola was pushing for saving the environment? lol
It's an EU regulation meant to battle bottle caps being a major problem for marine wild life, where bigger sea mammals and fish swallow them and suffocate from it. Why are you lobbying for mega corporations willingly and for free? Did you hit your head as child one time too many?
I was interested in that whole ecoli eating plastic and producing 95% acetaminophen from it by mass. Maybe we can stop a lot of the plastic from water/soda bottles and just medicate ourselves till our livers shit themselves out our assholes.
Also it means recycle schemes get a % boost because a lot more bottles come back for recycling with their caps. I wouldn't be surprised if the cap is 10-20% of the total plastic in a bottle so caps were missing then that's wasted opportunity.
I remember as a kid when ring pulls on case used to detach and that's the same thing too. I remember my dad metal detecting on the beach and he'd recover dozens of ringpulls because people just tossed them.
PET bottle recycling is the only part of plastics recycling that actually works. Making sure the bottle caps are also correctly returned to recycling plants is a good goal. Also it makes picking up litter a little easier, because now you only need to pick up one thing instead of two.
Btw, this is why clothing/bags/... made out of recycled plastic bottles is actually a terrible idea, because once the PET is out of the bottle recycling stream it is permanently removed from this recycling loop and new PET needs to be produced to compensate.
I end up dribbling because the lid gets in my way, but it's fine because I'm helping to offset the pollution caused by a billionaire's private jet.
If you keep pushing it further open it has a detent that will hold it open far enough that even my big nose won't touch it... It's an amazing design, better than a screw cap in every way. Well, at least the properly designed ones.
Yeah, I know, but that doesn't lend itself to comments that get upvotes, and I'm a slag for it.
Even worse, "it's mildly annoying, so I don't wanna!" Ofc would be better if people didn't throw em away at all, But alas
I like the convenience of not losing the cap
Easier to walk around with an open bottle too since you don't have to hold the cap or put it into your pocket
Attached cap prevents it from becoming a macroplastic
Conspiracy theory of mine - I’m European, so not sure if valid for the other side of the pond, but there was a massive campaign here to recycle the bottle caps by donating them for the creation of incubators for premature births. The local authorities placed massive donation boxes shaped like a heart and they were getting filled constantly.
Here’s the theory: When the campaign started getting up to speed, they started attaching the bottle caps to the bottle, because, I strongly believe, that out there, there is an absolute evil cunt who only feels something when a baby dies, so he wants fewer donated caps, because deep inside he knows people don’t care enough to snap the cap off.
If you don't like the new caps then the company that made that bottle screwed up.
Exactly - some are perfectly fine. The cheap ones are terrible, crossthread too easily, get up in your face, dribble, or all of the above.
Sports style bottles solved the problem long before standard caps got in the game. They get disposed of together here either way, even if the cap gets yanked off for being stupid.
I don't understand how they end up separate in disposal in the first place. The whole point is that you can reseal the bottle and move/store it without leaking. If you're not actively using the bottle, it gets resealed to move or store. When you finish the bottle, you probably have the cap still in hand or very close by.
Tangentially, I'd love to see a Pfand type system here.
I don't know what % of plastic the cap comprises in a plastic bottle but I bet its double digits. So annoying as it is to use, attaching the cap to the bottle does make sense for recycling. It also lessens litter.
But it needs to be paired up with a deposit refund scheme. Lots of countries do this already and encourages circular economies - the soft drinks companies purchasing recycle material to reuse. I bet those schemes measured a significant jump in recovered plastic when virtually all the caps come back with the bottles.
Annoying? Am I the only one who thinks it's more convenient? The cap cannot fall, you can open it one handed, you cannot lose the cap...
Real ones get their micro plastics by chewing on used car tires.
Thanks for explaining, I was worried this was a band aid mesure which didn't solve to root cause. /s
I was interested in that whole ecoli eating plastic and producing 95% acetaminophen from it by mass. Maybe we can stop a lot of the plastic from water/soda bottles and just medicate ourselves till our livers shit themselves out our assholes.
Cynicism, on the other hand - that's always good.
I was handed a water bottle the.other day at a volunteer event and was lamenting the fact that in the US, we don't have attached caps. I almost immediately lost mine. It's possible to make them attached, AND not suck.
I just always rip them off.
Simon Clark had a pretty good nuanced video on recycling and goes over plastics recycling in the latter parts of the video https://youtu.be/iOtrvBdRx8I
TL;DW Consider the environmental impact of systems over materials, most plastic doesn’t get recycled but some types of plastic are highly recyclable, existing plastic is undervalued, reduce > reuse > recycle.
I love the smell of an amount of microplastics in my brainmatter that is equal to a plastic teaspoon in the morning. Smells like burnt toast.
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