I know they’re supposed to be good for the environment. But… Holy smokes they drive me up the wall. They really do!

I had no trouble adapting when aluminum can pull-tabs got replaced by push-tabs, because it was pretty much the same movement, and I could see the immediate advantage of not getting cut by a pull-tab.

But the tethered cap is fighting decades of muscle memory in me: I’m used to taking the cap off with one hand and keeping it there while taking a swig with the other. Now I unscrew the cap with one hand, but I still have to hold the cap so it’s out of the way. It feels like drinking in handcuffs each and every time…

So unlike the pull-tab, the tethered plastic bottle cap is one of those compulsory eco solutions that constantly make you feel ever-so-slightly more miserable all the time, and I hate that because ecology only works when it brings something of value both to people and to the environment.

  • Eggyhead@kbin.run
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    8 months ago

    Bottle caps stay tethered to the bottles when bottles are taken in for recycling. They don’t end up on the ground.

    • Numhold@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      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.

        • Numhold@feddit.de
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          8 months ago

          Wait, the rings of plastic bottle caps were also among the top ten? Who takes the time to pry off the ring and why would they do this to begin with? This feels like there‘s still a piece missing.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Here’s the actual report, the answer is that they didn’t distinguish between caps and rings in the statistics. Most of the top 10 place of that category should come from caps, not rings.

            As to who pries them off: Bored people.

      • llii@feddit.de
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        8 months ago

        That’s the thing. I never saw plastic bottle caps on the ground because people want to close the bottle after use. It’s only good for green washing.

        • illi@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          It has to be noted it’s not yhe companies that camenup with this, afaik it’s EU regulation

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        It was one very common plastic garbage found on the beach. I think that’s exactly what lead them to make the decision to do this.

    • illi@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      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?

      • Z3k3@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s wielder that that. There was a period when my plastics bin actively got rejected if the caps were still on the bottle. To this day I have no clue why but they can’t do that anymore

      • Eggyhead@kbin.run
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        8 months ago

        I don’t think it’s a matter of people throwing the caps on the ground and not the bottles, but the fact that caps end up on the ground and people can’t be bothered to pick them back up again, or they roll off somewhere.