That's an EU regulation, not a corporate measure. And it has drastically decreased the amount of littered bottle caps, so a good thing.
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I think the cap thing is more about littering because in those countries people litter only the cap for some reason?
When cleaning up beaches and the like, those caps are the litter they found the most.
People lost them or didn't bother to pick them up because they are so small. Unlike with the bottles themselves.
Since they switched to the new caps, the amount of caps found has decreased significantly.
So yes, they work. It is all based on data.
Ofc it is, but stupid fucks have to complain about mundane shit
I'm only complaining about all the people that apparently regularly lost bottle caps. I don't think that has happened to me ever... Not the end of the world and if it reduces litter I'll deal with it but I curse these people every time one of the new caps is being annoying to screw back on.
Minority opinion, but I like those style caps. I like that I dont have to hold the cap. It's much easier on the go.
Also, the caps separated from the bottle fall through dinky cracks easier, like street drain covers) and get lost easier (or drop out of the bottom of the bin easier, etc.), being attached to the large bottle makes that more difficult to occur.
I think the kind of plastic used in bottles is one of very few that actually are profitable to recycle. PET, I think. This is actually something recycling companies want. Most other plastic is just burned or shipped somewhere.
IIRC the reason most caps used to be unrecyclable (many still are) is that they had a liner in them made of a different material. Because such caps were composite materials (using different types of plastic for the liner and the cap), they would make an impure product if recycled. The same problem applies if the cap and bottle are different types of plastic, which used to be more common.
(By "recycled" I mean most likely shipped to Southeast Asia to then most likely just find their way into the ocean)
You would be wrong; PET bottles are mostly actually recycled, because it recycles very well (also, why would places go to the effort of setting up a deposit/return scheme for something they aren't actually recycling? Just throw it in the blue bag with all the other plastic that doesn't actually get recycled)
The bottle has a deposit on it, the cap doesn't
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.
I remember when cans used to have tabs that tore off. These were changed to the current model, where the tab stays attached after the can is opened.
People complained that they couldn't drink properly with the new tab design. I guess they either figured it out, died, started using a glass, or gave up drinks in cans completely, since I haven't heard this complaint in decades.
Anyway, I hope you figure it out, comrade! Good luck!
I like the convenience of not losing the cap
Hahehahahehhahahahahhrha I don’t know what a thing is for
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.
Thanks for explaining, I was worried this was a band aid mesure which didn't solve to root cause. /s
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...
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