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Carlsberg glues beer cans together as it abandons plastic rings
- postpawl 8y agoHas anyone used this yet? Do the cans get unstuck too easily?
- ccsalvesen 8y agotldr: nope. The've arrived in the shops in Norway. One row of three cans are glued at both bottom and top. The two rows are glued only at the bottom. The handle keeps the rows securely together. The glue is some sort of hot glue used in liberal amounts. If anything, the boxes are harder than before to get loose.
- kgwxd 8y agoCan the cans still be recycled without having to remove the glue somehow?
- mrob 8y agoMost cans are already lined with epoxy, so I don't think a little more glue will be a problem.
- amag 8y agoMeanwhile in the plastic rings factory... Pointy-haired boss: "Carlsberg just cancelled the order for the 10 million plastic rings we produced, they're gonna glue the cans together instead!" Mid-level manager: "Oh, that's bad. What should we now do with all the rings?" Pointy-haired boss: "This sucks! Might as well dump them in the ocean!" Mid-level manager: "Ok!"
- perl4ever 8y agoIf this was literally true, it still would prevent the next 10 million rings from being produced, so it should have an eventual benefit from discontinuing them.
- acct1771 8y agoWhy are they pointy-haired..?
- roghummal 8y ago"The Pointy-haired Boss (often abbreviated to just PHB or "The Boss") is Dilbert's boss in the Dilbert comic strip." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointy-haired_Boss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointy-haired_Boss
- sebazzz 8y agoAs someone from the Netherlands, I find it surprising these plastic rings still exist. We don't have it for many years and use well-recycable cardboard.
- hoorayimhelping 8y agoI can't remember the last six pack of beer I bought in America with one of these. They were either bottles in a cardboard sleeve, or cans in a cardboard box.
- thrower123 8y agoIt's very common for cans on the cheaper end of the spectrum. For instance PBR, Rolling Rock, Natty, Narragansett. Particularly for 16 oz cans.
- naravara 8y agoAlso fairly common for six packs of soda and canned seltzer.
- bramblerose 8y agoFor trays, yes, but 6-packs are shrinkwrapped in plastic: https://i.imgur.com/VmHhQph.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VmHhQph.jpg
- jerrysievert 8y agodo these have handles on top to help carry? it's one of the nice things for 6-packs, whether with plastic rings, plastic tops, or sold in cardboard. that said, I think I still prefer crowlers over normal cans at this point.
- wodenokoto 8y agoI checked the first 3 google results for crowler, and they all tell me it's better than growlers and show be pictures of large cans of beer. So, what is a crowler, and how is it different from a can of beer?
- jerrysievert 8y agoIt’s a large can of beer. Most places that sell crowlers pour fresh draft in, and can on site. It typically means either very fresh beer (the Crowler I picked up yesterday was from a very fresh beer kegged a few days ago) or specialty beers that won’t get distributed in a way that normal consumers can get it. A beer correctly crowled will last for quite a while (months) if stored correctly. edited to add: a crowled beer is filled all the way to the top, sometimes purged with co2, which is what helps reduce oxidation - compared to a growler, which usually has an air gap.
- awiesenhofer 8y agoOr, you know ... use cardboard and bottles.
- Aloha 8y agocans are cheaper and easier to recycle, as well as being lighter to transport
- matt_the_bass 8y agoI’m curious If the total energy content of the glass bottle is more or less than the aluminum can. Especially with and without recycling.
- TillE 8y agoCans are lighter, but glass bottles are far better for recycling. They can be simply washed out and reused many many times before you need to melt them down.
- mdnormy 8y agoAnd taste better. But for business its all about cost. Cheaper material, easier to control in manufacturing line, cheaper to move around. Can it is.
- Aloha 8y agoif you use the correct bottle for resuse, then yes - notice I said recycling, with is different from reuse - reuse requires a much heavier grade of bottle glass than is currently used.
- twblalock 8y agoI'd rather see cardboard and cans, which other brands are using, than cardboard and bottles. Canned beer has become associated in the public mind with bad beer, at least in the US, but cans are a superior way to preserve and transport any kind of beer. Luckily some of the "craft beer" brands are adopting cans again and ending the stigma.
- wodenokoto 8y agoThe little mermaid statue they show, was it actually placed next to the little mermaid? I never heard anything about a second statue, and here in Denmark, anything that involves the little mermaid is usually big news.
- elbrownos 8y agoAnother article says "Alice Eriksen, the granddaughter of the Little Mermaid’s original sculptor, Edvard Eriksen, revealed the installation to the public today. The mermaid “canstruction” will be on display to the public in the Carlsberg Visitor Centre in Copenhagen from Friday 7 September 2018." https://ciwm-journal.co.uk/carlsberg-makes-waves-to-reduce-plastic-waste/ https://ciwm-journal.co.uk/carlsberg-makes-waves-to-reduce-p...
- ChristianGeek 8y agoInteresting, it also says: “...the original Little Mermaid statue was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, son of the company’s founder, in 1913 as a gift to the people of Copenhagen.” TIL.
- wodenokoto 8y agoThat clears up my question: It wasn't exhibited next to the original mermaid, which is why there was no commotion about it in local or national news.
- ravenstine 8y agoWhy not just put them in cardboard boxes like with sodas?
- petecooper 8y agoIn the UK, beer sold in larger quantities than a 4-pack or 6-pack tends to be fully boxed minus the plastic rings.
- meej 8y agoA lot of craft breweries in the US do this, particularly on the west coast. Ballast Point, Firestone Walker, and Ninkasi are a few examples.
- freiheit 8y agoAs a somewhat picky consumer of hoppy beers, I really dislike beer cans in cardboard boxes for a simple reason: you can't see the canned-on date. It's not a problem with some of the smaller beer-specialty shops, but in both grocery stores and bigger bottle shops, it's not uncommon for beer to still be on the shelf well past a date where it doesn't taste as good anymore. You can open the cardboard in the store to peek at the bottom of the can, but that sort of thing may be frowned upon.
- 8y ago
- RobLach 8y agoModern plastic rings are bio-degradable thou...
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- Freak_NL 8y agoThat only helps if the plastic actually get recycled. Biodegradable plastics don't degrade fast enough not to be detrimental to wildlife. > thou... I think you mean 'though'.
- RobLach 8y agoMaybe. I don’t believe anyone has really measured it. They’ve been on the market since the early 90’s and I don’t think anyone uses non-degradable ones anymore. http://www.hicone.com/index.php?id=39 http://www.hicone.com/index.php?id=39 says they can degrade as quickly as a month but they don’t mention the upper bound. (I did mean though.)
- rtkwe 8y agoThe problem is those require UV light to break down which means a) they won't break down in land fills and b) won't break down super well in water because it blocks UV light pretty well. Also it's just breaking down into smaller bits of plastic so it's not solving another issue with is the increasing amount of plastic in the ocean, those small pieces can still cause trouble for wildlife as they eat it.
- agurk 8y agoHere in Denmark I haven't seen cans joined together using plastic rings - Carlsberg or any other. The common format for six cans to be plastic wrapped as a whole unit. As there's a deposit on cans they're normally collected, but any packing might be left behind. These glued cans will both save on plastic waste and reduce litter.
- decko 8y agoIt's being trialed in England so far. in Denmark don't they still just use the paper wrapping. Isn't that just as good?
- i88y6 8y agoI'm skeptical that that many of them are getting into the ocean. I wonder if it would be more effective to put a UUID on them and tell the public that if one of these is found in the ocean a full investigation will be launched. Not just for reprisal, but to develop "user stories" about how this shit gets into the ocean. If they determine that you dumped it , then you get fined to pay for 10^5 lbs of trash to be removed from the sea. If there's even a little FUD of getting caught (via UUID) I think it would result in a huge reduction in littering.
- deegles 8y agoThat would require government regulation and unfortunately the current political climate appears to be very much against that. (apologies for bringing up politics)
- mcculley 8y agoWhy apologize? Politics is inextricably intertwined in how we address problems in our world and our communities. The admonishment to avoid talking about politics is silly, in my opinion. It only serves to keep people from solving problems.
- i88y6 8y agoPeople have had enough of this trope. Both parties are the same. Trump us not an intelligent man, but that's a feature, not a bug. He's the shakeup that our broken 2-party system needs. Someone who doesn't act according to the official corporate-sponsored narrative. And the "anything is possible" realisation that may spur non-fake candidates to run for office and actually do something. Also worth noting: he's been in office approaching 2 years and the sky hasn't fallen. Maybe there is something to this derangement theory? (Obligatory non-apology for "bringing politics into this")
- BurningFrog 8y agoThe plastic in the oceans is overwhelmingly from the unsorted trash of east Asia. Europe and North America contribute very small amounts. https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/22/earth-day-and-the-plastics-pollution-pro https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/22/earth-day-and-the-plastic...
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- wrycoder 8y agoAnything would be better than the hard plastic rings I'm finding on East Coast craft beer lately. I've apparently not discovered the trick to separate them. I'm always afraid I'm going to tear a fingernail when it lets go.
- mason55 8y agoFor the first five you can lever the beers against each other to pry them out. Can’t help with number six - just today I knocked the wind out of myself getting the last one out.
- rtkwe 8y agoYou're not supposed to pry them off at all. You just sort of pull and rotate the can keeping a hand on the rest. There's a bit of a trick but they're not that bad but it shouldn't involve your fingernails at all. https://youtu.be/1u1q4FRruEc?t=37 https://youtu.be/1u1q4FRruEc?t=37
- vmlinuz 8y agoMaybe I am just too old, but I'm quite surprised to see no mention here of the Burns Omni-net from the Simpsons episode The Old Man and the Lisa[1] - "It sweeps the sea clean" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Lisa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Lisa