this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 104 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If you can't outright solve a problem you shouldn't try to improve the situation >:(

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (7 children)

How is this improving the situation. Do people only throw away the caps? I think this is just some stupid law so that they can say they tried. I still think soda cans are just a better solution and make it mandatory that companies recycle their own waste.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I still think soda cans are just a better solution

That actually sounds like a good idea to me, or you could make them similar in design to those water-bottles that have the cap meant to stay with the bottle, shown in:

this image (branding removed)

Whereas the existing design is similar to the old pull tabs that were on cans which caused ecological damage when people discarded them on the ground.

I wish they'd instead go after the big companies doing the majority of the damage, but I suppose this's where the cards lay. (For now)

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

The parks in my area have far more bottle caps on the ground than bottles

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Do people only throw away the caps?

Well yes, many throw caps and bottle separately and the people that throw their trash anywhere will certainly not care about the caps.

make it mandatory that companies recycle their own waste.

Lol.

In what country is it mandatory for companies to recycle soda cans ?

[–] meekah 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

unfortunately yes, i've seen lots of just caps thrown around as litter

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What? Don't be ridiculous. Of course you should still try to improve the situation. That's like saying trucks that get 7MPG are bad for the environment but don't bother making trucks that get 20MPG because it still runs on fossil fuels.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you cannot stop the bleeding, reduce it until you can

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's a reason the saying goes "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"

Reducing comes first, then reuse what you can, and recycle what you can't.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Refuse > Reduce > Reuse > Repurpose > Recycle

5 Rs rule

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (3 children)

What's the difference between Refuse and Reduce here? I always took Reduce to mean using as little plastic as possible, which to m3 would include refusing the use of single-use plastics.

Same with Reuse and Repurpose: Reuse it however you can, regardless of its original purpose.

3 Rs has the rhetoric benefit of being a tricolon, which helps with keeping it concise and memorable.

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[–] chiliedogg 7 points 9 months ago

Refuse is the worst possible word to use here, given its alternate meaning.

[–] riodoro1 53 points 9 months ago (18 children)

There is a patch of garbage on the pacific the size of a small continent but its still legal to sell single use plastic containers.

How many years do these people think we have?

[–] killeronthecorner 21 points 9 months ago

Yes, but now the soda bottles in that patch will have their caps attached. So that's sort of, well, I suppose ... you may have a point.

More seriously I'm fully convinced that this cap attachment nonsense is purely to save coca cola et. al. further costs in recycling bottles. Like it's still a small step forward, but it wouldn't happen if corpos weren't saving a dime.

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[–] RQG 44 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Another symbolic act so that they can pretend they did something for the environment and don't have to actually tackle the major problems which could cut into profits of big companies.

Also anyone got fucked over by the bottle cap spinning in the way of the pour spilling drink all over the table?

[–] Mr_Blott 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No but I've had the "pull the cap away not realising it's attached and pull the bottle of milk out of my hand, sending it crashing to the floor" thing, that was fun

[–] RQG 4 points 9 months ago

That's a genius move as well. Nicely done.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah like the paper straws through a plastic lid. The part that gets chewed and wet with digestive enzymes is some limp paper yet the simple lid can be as plastic as they want.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

paper lollypop sticks but the whole lollypop is wrapped in a fuck ton of plastic

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[–] Z3k3 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This explains a lot.

It's also annoying because my recycling bin for plastics wants the bottle but for some reason not the caps. They are to go in rhe general waste

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is because bottle caps are ordinarily too small to be useful recyclable material, as when separated they are hard to get together in enough quantity.

While attached to the bottle, they should be viable recyclables.

[–] Z3k3 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Someone should tell my council.

My pure guess with no evidence was perhaps they were made of a different plastic

[–] zik 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Sadly, a very low percentage of plastic gets recycled anyway. In my country recycling company stats say only 10% - 20% of collected plastic is recycled. But the reality is much worse than that.

It turns out that nearly all of even that small percentage just gets shipped to a poor country for recycling because it's too expensive to recycle here. Once it's been shipped it's considered "recycled" but since recycling is expensive the company receiving it just takes the money and quietly landfills it in their own country.

The reality is that plastic recycling barely happens at all.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Largely due to the fact that people confuse resin ID codes as recyclable labels and don't know which types of plastics can be recycled in thier area.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

that explains why those all suddenly become attached

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh, that's why every beverage now has these shitty caps. Worth it if it helps fight pollution tho

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I mean that's less stupid than "Paper Straws"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] wieson 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I'm still flabbergasted that neither France, ~~the Netherlands~~, Switzerland, Austria nor Poland have Pfand (aka a money back deposit thing) for plastic bottles. It's such an integrated part of my life, that I wonder why other countries haven't adopted it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Netherland got them now on:

  • Beer (crates)
  • Big plastic bottles (±1,5L)
  • Small plastic bottles
  • Aluminium Soda Cans (Newest one)

It's called 'statiegeld' here and we got them as long as I can remember. It's is just recently it also covers the small plastic bottles and soda cans.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Am I the only one who loves the new cap design?

[–] Rayuza 7 points 9 months ago

Yes youre literally the only one

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's fucking annoying and it's completely backwards. The cap is constantly in the way when I try to pour the contents into a glass, so shit spills everywhere. I just snip the plastic umbilical cord with some scissors or rip the cap off.

Another nonsensical bill. Add it to the pile.

[–] Sunfoil 6 points 9 months ago (6 children)

If you can't handle a slightly different lid design, you're going to hate it when you have to actually make lifestyle changes for us to not all die.

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[–] Flebberflep 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If you pull hard enough the cap comes off just like before. Very effective legislation and use of resources.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for doing your part in understanding why this exists and then doing the exact opposite.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Who tf is throwing the cap away, but keeps the bottle?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

My girlfriend can't screw them back on properly so right now she only uses each drinks bottle once

I hate the things so much because they hurt to use, can't really be used one-handed and also make it difficult to drink from the bottle because of the weird angles they implicate.

So I've been cutting the caps off and cutting the little limbs off and making what was previously one piece of plastic into three, which I obviously also hate doing.

In the past I would always screw the lid back on before binning it, either to trap the air out or for the sake of completeness, so in my particular case this policy is very much the worst of all worlds, I hope the data shows that I'm an edge case though if they're passing it into law.

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