Page 2 of 3
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:06 am
by Jersey Girl
honorentheos wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 11:01 pm
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 9:35 pm
We don't have those in the States. YET. I bet we're next to get them and when we do, I'll be complaining if they're on the water bottles we get for winter food storage!
I'm guessing it has to do with recycling? Here in our state they outlawed plastic grocery bags that you take out your stuff with. Something about saving the environment or whatever. So we bring reusable bags now. I don't mind it at all...
except for the irony involved when you are buying plastic trash can liners or plastic bottles or plastic jugs or plastic anything that is perfectly fine so long as you don't take them home in a plastic bag! Get it? You can buy plastic bags in the store but you can't put your plastic bags in a plastic bag to take home.
How stupid is that?
Not very.
https://recyclecoach.com/blog/plastic-b ... 0stoppages.
Bags going to landfills may take forever to break down which is its own issue. But there isn't an easy alternative to using them for refuse collection. Grocery bags are avoidable uses of plastics that, if someone puts them into the recycle bin, can damage the sorting equipment and undermine the recycling efforts.
It's logical, really.
I'm not entirely certain what part of my post you're replying to here, honor. Stop boggling me.
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:21 am
by Chap
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:06 am
except for the irony involved when you are buying plastic trash can liners or plastic bottles or plastic jugs or plastic anything that is perfectly fine so long as you don't take them home in a plastic bag! Get it? You can buy plastic bags in the store but you can't put your plastic bags in a plastic bag to take home.
How stupid is that?
honorentheos wrote:
Bags going to landfills may take forever to break down which is its own issue. But there isn't an easy alternative to using them for refuse collection. Grocery bags are avoidable uses of plastics that, if someone puts them into the recycle bin, can damage the sorting equipment and undermine the recycling efforts.
It's logical, really.
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:06 am
I'm not entirely certain what part of my post you're replying to here, honor.
As honorentheos pointed out, it is not "stupid" to try to reduce the number of plastic bags going into the environment by stopping handing our large numbers for free to supermarket shoppers. It's a really good idea. It stays a good idea even if we still have no alternative to continue buying and using plastic bags for refuse collection. Take my own case: when I got my weekly supermarket delivery before the new measures, I might end up with up to ten plastic bags to dispose of. That is in addition to the (on average) one plastic bag that I might need each week for the non-recyclable part of my (sorted) trash collection - the compostable waste and the recyclable waste (paper, cans, bottles and so on) goes direct into the appropriate bins without being bagged first. So that might make eleven plastic bags a week that left my home for landfill.
Now I don't get any plastic bags from the supermarket delivery to speak of, although I still need one bag a week for non-recyclable trash. Down from eleven bags to one. As honorentheos points out, nothing stupid there, is there?
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:34 am
by Jersey Girl
Chap wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:21 am
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:06 am
except for the irony involved when you are buying plastic trash can liners or plastic bottles or plastic jugs or plastic anything that is perfectly fine so long as you don't take them home in a plastic bag! Get it? You can buy plastic bags in the store but you can't put your plastic bags in a plastic bag to take home.
How stupid is that?
honorentheos wrote:
Bags going to landfills may take forever to break down which is its own issue. But there isn't an easy alternative to using them for refuse collection. Grocery bags are avoidable uses of plastics that, if someone puts them into the recycle bin, can damage the sorting equipment and undermine the recycling efforts.
It's logical, really.
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:06 am
I'm not entirely certain what part of my post you're replying to here, honor.
As honorentheos pointed out, it is not "stupid" to try to reduce the number of plastic bags going into the environment by stopping handing our large numbers for free to supermarket shoppers. It's a really good idea. It stays a good idea even if we still have no alternative to continue buying and using plastic bags for refuse collection. Take my own case: when I got my weekly supermarket delivery before the new measures, I might end up with up to ten plastic bags to dispose of. That is in addition to the (on average) one plastic bag that I might need each week for the non-recyclable part of my (sorted) trash collection - the compostable waste and the recyclable waste (paper, cans, bottles and so on) goes direct into the appropriate bins without being bagged first. So that might make eleven plastic bags a week that left my home for landfill.
Now I don't get any plastic bags from the supermarket delivery to speak of, although I still need one bag a week for non-recyclable trash. Down from eleven bags to one. As honorentheos points out, nothing stupid there, is there?
Was there any indication in my post that I thought reducing plastic was stupid? If so, where?
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:56 am
by honorentheos
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:06 am
honorentheos wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 11:01 pm
Not very.
https://recyclecoach.com/blog/plastic-b ... 0stoppages.
Bags going to landfills may take forever to break down which is its own issue. But there isn't an easy alternative to using them for refuse collection. Grocery bags are avoidable uses of plastics that, if someone puts them into the recycle bin, can damage the sorting equipment and undermine the recycling efforts.
It's logical, really.
I'm not entirely certain what part of my post you're replying to here, honor. Stop boggling me.
The part where you question why it's ok to buy plastic garbage bags or recyclables but you can't put the box of garbage bags into a plastic shopping bag. I was attempting to point out why it isn't stupid or contradictory.
Basically, shopping bags are both plastic, which we are all seeking to use less, and they gum up recycling center sorting machines which hurts municipal recycling efforts.
I think your bigger point that a person was still free to buy all kinds of plastic products and containers which we should be doing less of is a good socially aware point.
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:10 am
by honorentheos
To put it another way, the government had an interest in reducing single use shopping bag quantities that is directly affecting their use of funds. It affects the cost of trash collection services when, as the article says, they are spending up to $1 Million a year to have workers climb around with sharp knives every day cutting out and removing gummed up plastic bags from their machines.
So while the government may or may not desire to dictate how much plastic is being consumed, the interference here in a person's choices isn't based on that. There is a pretty defensible reason.
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:06 pm
by Dr. Shades
Bret Ripley wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:36 am
Dr. Shades wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 7:06 am
Would you like a megathread?
Was that funny?
No, because it wasn’t a joke.
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:21 pm
by Bret Ripley
Dr. Shades wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:06 pm
No, because it wasn’t a joke.
Bummer. Seeing it as an attempt at humor was my way of letting you off the hook from looking like a garden variety asshole. (Speaking as one asshole to another, of course.)
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:40 pm
by Imwashingmypirate
Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 9:35 pm
We don't have those in the States. YET. I bet we're next to get them and when we do, I'll be complaining if they're on the water bottles we get for winter food storage!
I'm guessing it has to do with recycling? Here in our state they outlawed plastic grocery bags that you take out your stuff with. Something about saving the environment or whatever. So we bring reusable bags now. I don't mind it at all...
except for the irony involved when you are buying plastic trash can liners or plastic bottles or plastic jugs or plastic anything that is perfectly fine so long as you don't take them home in a plastic bag! Get it? You can buy plastic bags in the store but you can't put your plastic bags in a plastic bag to take home.
How stupid is that?
Yes. They are saying the caps can be recycled. I believe there is like a giant sieve that lets small plastics drop to be incinerated so the cap needs to be attached so it stays with the bottle and is recycled.
It's all strange. I was told as a kid not to use paper because either was killing the trees. The attached caps are fine but they aren't easy to operate. The should have made the attachment longer so the cap can be placed flat then twisted without having to stretch it.
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:40 pm
by Imwashingmypirate
canpakes wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 10:34 pm
.
Everything old is new again.
.
This would be better.
Re: Bottle caps.
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:43 pm
by Bret Ripley
I just double-checked and confirmed that our local recycling service doesn't even accept bottle caps. I wonder how typical that is around the U.S.?