Yes I am aware that theyāre somehow supposed to reduce plastic waste because the cap canāt get lost ā¦ unless you cut it off, of course.
Yes I am also aware that there are people with disabilities (shaky hands, weak grip, etc.) who are thankful for these and actually like the design. Good for them, and I mean that in a non-sarcastic way.
But personally, I hate these things with all the āfirst world problemsā rage I can muster and go out of my way to rip / cut / twist them off on every single bottle I buy. I donāt like having the bottle cap directly in my face while drinking, or slipping in the way of the flow whenever I just want to pour milk, and on more than one occasion, Iāve actually cut my finger OR lip on these little sh*ts (not the same type as in the picture, but baldy-made longer ābandsā that leave little plastic spikes on the cap and/or band).
No idea whether I should post this in the āunpopular opinionā section instead or if other people think the same, but to me, āmildly infuriatingā describes them perfectly.
what i think when people struggle with the cap hitting their face
Pretty much. Whenever I see these type of posts I can only think of some cavemen failing to figure out the most simple contraption. Those caps are literally not a problem at all, assuming youāre not a complete moron.
Its often the little things like this that make it clear for me who is indeed a moron.
Like oh, omg, that explains so much about that person.
That poor thing.
Now, I def need to not equate that with ācapabilitiesā of someone, even morons can brute-force achieve things I could never. They do it despite the handicap and I respect that.
Dont want to discuss problems or brainstorm when them but respect nonetheless (them and their work).
Most of us are in fact not what itās commonly considered neurotypical (I beehive they are a smol but just the most vocal group). And just like with folk on introverts/depressed/ADHD/autism/etc spectrum itās best to recognise, acknowledge, respect, and adapt to that (ie work and communicate a bit differently with each one of us, it doesnāt take all that much, and the learning curve is just so unbelievably good at the start).
If everyone had either stopped buying bottled beverages or cleaned up after themselves, this wouldnāt be an issue.
Also, yāall sound a little whiny. This isnāt even a first world problem.
stopped buying bottled beverages
Whatās the alternative in your opinion? I donāt think barrels and glasses are viable in every case. Serious question.
Youāre coming up with a sarcastic exaggeration (barrels and glasses), followed by āserious questionā. So which is it now?
Anyway. How about refillable cups, travel mugs, returnable bottles? Stop buying bottled water if your tap water is fine. Get a soda maker if you like sparkling water or Spritzer. Clean up after yourselves, return or throw away bottles with the lid on.
And first and foremost: stop buying packaged and bottled sh*t at every possible occasion. Things like single-use / to-go cups or bottles shouldnāt even exist.
We all created the landfills and ocean garbage patches and now we complain about our own stupidity, unable to drink from a bottle with a lid attached to it like weāre toddlers.
If you seriously ask me for an alternative: stop creating waste. Stop complaining about your waste. And stop complaining about regulations that try to limit waste that shouldnāt even be there. Big part of the problem stems from our own laziness and consumerism. Everyone is part of the problem, nobody wants to be a part of the solution. What did you even expect?
I hardly want to reply for your aggressiveness. I donāt see how thatās been called for.
But yes, I was being serious because you explicitly excluded all bottles by ābottled beveragesā. So I thought, water can be replaced by tap water (I do that personally because I donāt want carry crates that are unnecessary) but what about beer, for example? I could order kegs (no sarcasm, they start at 5 liters) but can hardly take them with me.
So, by ābottled beveragesā you donāt count āreturnable bottlesā. Apart from that differentiation not being obvious, it didnāt occur to me because in my country almost all sold bottles are returnable, even single-use ones.
Hope that clarifies my question. Maybe next time donāt immediately jump to conclusions and make assumptions about other peopleās lifestyle.
Your solution to people wanting to buy some specific drinks is ādonāt buy the thing you want, buy something elseā. Hardly an answer.
This is some very short sighted thinking.
Caps attached to the bottles is very important to the recycling industry, so they can be more cheaply and efficiently shipped to China and thrown into the sea.
Source on that? As far as I know China stopped importing plastic waste as they realized it was too expensive for the state as they are burdened with the externalities, i.e. cleanup.
I think a few years ago it was China. Now it will be anybody else who wants Western money and doesnāt mind burning plastic. Malaysia and Turkey seem popular for the UK. Not sure where the US sends it. It sure as shit isnāt recycled in any way that people would think of as recycling.
Iāve no idea why we make plastic bottled drinks when aluminium cans exist.
Fuck plastic bottles in general, back to glass.
This generalization is a problem. Assessing the whole life cycle, the carbon footprint of glass bottles is problematic and plastics is a viable alternative.
You have to consider the significantly higher weight of glass increasing carbon emissions from transportation.
While plastics bottles can only be reused about half as often as glass bottles, their production is far more energy-efficient (glass production is done at temps of 1400-1600 Ā°C or 2500-3000 Ā°F while plastics use temperatures from 160-300 Ā°C or 320-600 Ā°F) which also reduces carbon footprint in basically every country.
Of course recycling has to be taken seriously and properly organized to prevent plastics just ending up in nature. But we have to balance the micro-plastics problem against climate change. We need to solve both.
It used to be done a lot more before and some places still do it in Europe. You return the glass bottle intact, they reuse it as is. Only carbon spent is in transporting it.
Well, you also have to clean them which I assume also uses energy. And they need to be fulfilling āfood-gradeā cleaning requirements since you want to drink out of them, so thatās probably more energy needed than a simple wash in soap.
You have to consider the significantly higher weight of glass increasing carbon emissions from transportation.
If the transportation was electrical renewable sourced this wouldnāt be a factor.
their production is far more energy-efficient (glass production is done at temps of 1400-1600 Ā°C or 2500-3000 Ā°F while plastics use temperatures from 160-300 Ā°C or 320-600 Ā°F)
If manufacturing was electrical renewable sourced this wouldnāt be a factor.
I donāt want micro plastics in my nutsack. I donāt care that itāll be a long time before we get there. We should start getting there now. I donāt want to hear perfectionist fallacy arguments about why I should be happy to have plastics swimming around with my sperm.
I donāt want to hear perfectionist fallacy arguments
You mean like the ones you gave if there was a 100% renewable power grid and transportation was 100% electrical glass would be carbon neutral?
Well, both arenāt and we are a long way from either, so that argument stands. You may care about your nutsack, as do I about my own, but climate change is the more critical problem.
Have you ever heard about the Exota affair in the Netherlands? In 1969, journalists uncovered the glass bottles of Exota soda were explosion hazards and their scathing TV episode about it drove the company to bankruptcy. It became a whole ordeal after the journalists and broadcaster were sued.
They are mostly there to prevent sea animals from swallowing the cap and dying a slow agonizing deathā¦
Iām pretty sure the solution is to stop throwing plastic into the ocean.
