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.

  • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    Right? What other possible materials could they use? Prior to plastic, we just cupped our hands and had people pour beverages into them, or directly into our mouths.

    Plastics have been revolutionary in keeping our hands and faces from getting sticky. I, for one, refuse to go back to the days of sucking off the tap.

    • mac@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      Coca Cola used to use glass bottles, it is a material that is completely recyclable. Why change it?

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Plastic is recycleable aswell. In Finland like 98% of plastic bottles are returned to the stores and new bottles are made of them. Glass is heavy and fragile and I don’t remember ever seeing a glass bottle that’s bigger than half litre or one that you can put the cap back on.

        • mac@infosec.pub
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Glass is infinitely recyclable though, plastic deteriorates regularly overtime

          • lud@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            Glass weight quite a lot which might make them worse for their transport 🤷

            It’s also obviously more expensive for everyone.

          • Dyf_Tfh@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            Except PET from plastics bottles which is the only common plastic that is fully depolymerizable/ repolymerizable, instead of simply being remeltable.

        • brisk@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Replaceable caps definitely exist, they are common on glass soft drink bottles where I am. They look just like the plastic lids but in thin sheet metal, complete with perforations and ring.

          Some of the screwtop beer bottle style reseal pretty well too.

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Not to worry. One can cork their bottle for all the sanitary and convenience benefits of keeping a variety of corks lying around and definitely not breeding bacteria in them.

      • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        Better than recyclable, glass is reusable.

        You can just send the bottle back to the factory, the factory washes it and refill it.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Glass bottles are fun, I remember when beer mostly came in glass bottles. Glass shards everywhere and the metal caps being everywhere. Such a nice solution.