The problem is plastic is great for food safety. The way it makes air and water-tight seals, that can easily be broken, is hard to replicate. If cans could open, on their own, the way sealed plastic bottles do, then we could have easier recycling via metal containers. But the self-open cans make sharp edges and nobody’s invented a way around that yet.
They also make Aluminum “Bottles”. There’s going to be a plastic gasket on the metal cap, but that’s magnitude less plastic then a whole bottle and I already know what salad dressing looks like. Lighter to transport then glass as well. If the supply chain is short, glass can work, but the longer it is, the more sense aluminum is.
Aluminum cans have a thin plastic liner. The aluminum toxicity is about aluminum oxide anyway. The main exposure source for that is hygiene products that use it as a whitener.
Good one! Industry and consumption problem. Also I assume by candy bars you are referring to chocolate bars.
Industry: could offer chocolate bars in bulk packed sealed boxes or bags with waxy cardboard or paper packaging. This already exists for many independent products. However vendors and producers want to maximize profit on individual wrapped item, preying on weak wills around the cashiers.
Consumption: chocolate bars are bad for you. I’d tax sweets and sugary beverages a similar way we tax tobacco, cannabis and alcohol, so that it can give back to society’s increased healthcare costs and dissuade excess consumption via increased prices. Currently producers like Mars, Mondelez and Hershey’s get away scott free for poisoning the populace.
Basically. Convenience pushes most, if not all, of the packaging changes we see. Plastic has been very good at accomplishing the things people want to be done with packaging at a low, immediate cost to the user. Turns out the long term cost is much more drastic.
Sure there’s a use case for aluminum cans and and a use case re-usable containers too.
But there’s a lot of people like that think that finding a use case that requires plastic for one thing proves that plastic is needed for everything. This is a fallacy.
The problem is plastic is great for food safety. The way it makes air and water-tight seals, that can easily be broken, is hard to replicate. If cans could open, on their own, the way sealed plastic bottles do, then we could have easier recycling via metal containers. But the self-open cans make sharp edges and nobody’s invented a way around that yet.
Incredible idea, LISTEN TO THIS:
Reusable glass bottles with metal caps.
They also make Aluminum “Bottles”. There’s going to be a plastic gasket on the metal cap, but that’s magnitude less plastic then a whole bottle and I already know what salad dressing looks like. Lighter to transport then glass as well. If the supply chain is short, glass can work, but the longer it is, the more sense aluminum is.
Sounds perfect. Unless it’s true what they say about aluminum toxicity after all.
Aluminum cans have a thin plastic liner. The aluminum toxicity is about aluminum oxide anyway. The main exposure source for that is hygiene products that use it as a whitener.
There are so many other plastic use cases in food storage and transport. Like sure, we can bring back milk men but what about everything else?
Like what?
Wrapping a candy bar in a sealed wrapper.
Good one! Industry and consumption problem. Also I assume by candy bars you are referring to chocolate bars.
Industry: could offer chocolate bars in bulk packed sealed boxes or bags with waxy cardboard or paper packaging. This already exists for many independent products. However vendors and producers want to maximize profit on individual wrapped item, preying on weak wills around the cashiers.
Consumption: chocolate bars are bad for you. I’d tax sweets and sugary beverages a similar way we tax tobacco, cannabis and alcohol, so that it can give back to society’s increased healthcare costs and dissuade excess consumption via increased prices. Currently producers like Mars, Mondelez and Hershey’s get away scott free for poisoning the populace.
Did you miss the part about the airtight and watertight seals?
So we have all this plastic waste because people can’t be bothered to operate a can opener?
Basically. Convenience pushes most, if not all, of the packaging changes we see. Plastic has been very good at accomplishing the things people want to be done with packaging at a low, immediate cost to the user. Turns out the long term cost is much more drastic.
Because people like you can’t be bothered to respect their fellow humans in terms of use case design.
But yes. Until we find a way to use can openers to keep small amounts of ketchup sterile, it’s because people can’t be bothered to use a can opener.
Sure there’s a use case for aluminum cans and and a use case re-usable containers too.
But there’s a lot of people like that think that finding a use case that requires plastic for one thing proves that plastic is needed for everything. This is a fallacy.