Tethered Bottle Caps?

[Spare tyre]

One bit of litter to pick up rather than 2

[Silvanus]

Slightly off topic, plastic is an incredible invention and could be described as life saving in some cases. However, humanity will look back on large scale single use plastics as one of the worst things in human history.

[theaxe]

PF62 said:

I find it rather hard to believe that most people will take an empty bottle and remove the cap and throw it in general waste whilst putting the bottle in recycling.

I heard that the recycling machines can't/won't process anything smaller than a cubic inch so even if the lids to end up in the right bin they then get diverted to general waste at the processing centre.

[ApOrbital]

If neil chambers wanted a drink he would gulp the lot and let his acids take control.

[CoolHands]

It’s so they get dumped together in the sea when being ‘recycled’ rather than separately

[Timothy Bucktu]

When they're checked in the hedge from the car window I suppose it does mean 50% less waste. Bottle plus lid attached, as opposed to bottle with the lid a few miles further back. God, I truly despise litterers!!

[R6tty]

I think I've posted about this before. If you want to drink straight from the bottle, it's very difficult. i've had a few bottles of tonic that haven't re-sealed properly and gone flat. So I registered my objections yia an email to Schweppes. Heard nothing back, so I now boycott all their products.
My loss? Hopefully theirs eventually.

[boxst]

R6tty said:

I think I've posted about this before. If you want to drink straight from the bottle, it's very difficult. i've had a few bottles of tonic that haven't re-sealed properly and gone flat. So I registered my objections yia an email to Schweppes. Heard nothing back, so I now boycott all their products.
My loss? Hopefully theirs eventually.

Google who owns them (and who they own). To do your boycott properly it needs to include lots of thing like Dr Pepper. They are also a bit weird in that they are 'owned' by different companies in different countries.

[mikey_b]

flyingvisit said:

Same in Finland. We get 10 - 20 cents per bottle from the supermarket bottle collecting machine thingy. And I have never, here or anywhere else, taken the cap off a plastic bottle and then thrown it way. How much is this sh*t costing us!!!?

It isn't costing you anything. It's a very minor redesign to the machine that makes the lids. Given the machine will then make millions of them using the new design, the per-unit cost of the change will be virtually zero. And now, every bottle that comes in for recycling will come with it's cap, instead of a large proportion coming without the cap because people assumed the lids weren't recyclable.

[cobra kid]

Good idea.

Awkward to start with.

We'll soon be used to it and it won't be a problem.

[Zaichik]

the EU take this stuff seriously enough that they even have someone to manage it:



PET Packaging and Recycling Standards for Bottletops Compliance and Control Officer (post 56891124)
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Salary: €120,000 with enhanced benefits and relocation
Application deadline: 22 March 2024


I for one think this is the kind of multi national leadership we need ;-)

[M1AGM]

hammo19 said:

I was only saying to Mrs H yesterday that this new "invention" is a pain in the backside as its become more difficult to reseat the cap properly and requires a number of attempts. A solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

The problem is that bottle caps are in the top 5 marine pollutants, degrade very slowly and end up in the food chain.

[RizzoTheRat]

Glassman said:

In Holland customers can take their empty beer bottles to the supermarket and get money off their next purchase.

To be honest, it's actually a bit of a pain in the arse. It used to be glass bottles only but they now have it on plastic bottles and cans too.

What it means in practice is

• you need to sort through your bottles to figure out which ones have the satiegeld and which ones don't, currently smaller producers, like a lot of breweries, don't have it, so they need to go in normal glass recycling bins
• you can't crush cans and plastic bottles to take up less space in your bin as the machine need to be able to read the barcode
• people rummage through bins to search for ones people have thrown away, and dump the rest of the rubbish on the ground
• The machines at supermarkets don't seem to be that reliable, so if it isn't working you have to take them home again, or chuck them in the general glass/PMD recycling bins

[RizzoTheRat]

PF62 said:

I find it rather hard to believe that most people will take an empty bottle and remove the cap and throw it in general waste whilst putting the bottle in recycling.

Not that long ago plastic recycling bins specifically said they didn't take plastic bottle caps Presumably a different type of plastic. I remember someone at a site I worked out used to collect them to pass on to the scouts who sent them somewhere else they could be recycled.
I suspect a lot of older people are still under the impression they're not supposed to put them in the recycling and throw them in general waste.

[ARHarh]

RizzoTheRat said:

PF62 said:

I find it rather hard to believe that most people will take an empty bottle and remove the cap and throw it in general waste whilst putting the bottle in recycling.

Not that long ago plastic recycling bins specifically said they didn't take plastic bottle caps Presumably a different type of plastic. I remember someone at a site I worked out used to collect them to pass on to the scouts who sent them somewhere else they could be recycled.
I suspect a lot of older people are still under the impression they're not supposed to put them in the recycling and throw them in general waste.

I think at 60 years old I may be classed as older

I have never put lids in the general waste, I have always put bottles in the recycling with their lids on. Never even considered whether they can be recycled or not, just assumed they could be.

[chemistry]

ARHarh said:

Every time I get one i just break it off, easy no more hassle that way.

Same

[thegreenhell]

ARHarh said:

RizzoTheRat said:

PF62 said:

I find it rather hard to believe that most people will take an empty bottle and remove the cap and throw it in general waste whilst putting the bottle in recycling.

Not that long ago plastic recycling bins specifically said they didn't take plastic bottle caps Presumably a different type of plastic. I remember someone at a site I worked out used to collect them to pass on to the scouts who sent them somewhere else they could be recycled.
I suspect a lot of older people are still under the impression they're not supposed to put them in the recycling and throw them in general waste.

I think at 60 years old I may be classed as older

I have never put lids in the general waste, I have always put bottles in the recycling with their lids on. Never even considered whether they can be recycled or not, just assumed they could be.

General advice for many years, often with signs on public recycling bins, was to dispose of bottle tops separately in general waste because the sorting machines couldn't separate the different plastics if they were attached.

That has now changed, and you should recycle tops attached to the bottles they came from. You are advised not to recycle loose tops because they are too small for most sorting machines and will just end up in general waste in most cases anyway.

[welshjon81]

We've had these for at least a year in Wales. Are they a recent thing in England then?

[cobra kid]

welshjon81 said:

We've had these for at least a year in Wales. Are they a recent thing in England then?

Yes, they were tested on the savages first.

[TikTak]

Yeah been around a while now London way, annoying little things. Bottle lid gets in the way or doesn't fold back properly when you're screwing the cap back on.

Most people I know just break them off completely now, and the little 'tether' bit goes in the bin meaning technically a small additional bit not being recycled and going to landfill.