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On board with mandating recycling and encouraging use of infinitely recyclable materials in container manufacturing. A couple nits to pick, though. – You have
by strogonoff 6y ago
On board with mandating recycling and encouraging use of infinitely recyclable materials in container manufacturing.
A couple nits to pick, though.
– You have to be specific when advocating for reuse. Some like to keep using—for long periods of time—bottles made from cheap thin disposable plastic. That plastic, when repeatedly emptied, may quickly accumulate tiny cracks and leech chemicals, which in case of P(V)C may well be BPA. How harmful this could be depends on country’s regulations.
– Pure aluminum containers are rare, if exist. Aluminum cans & bottles contain plastic inside.
I personally advocate for glass, and if glass is not an option—recycle, don’t reuse disposable plastic or aluminum containers more than a couple of times for the sake of your and your descendants’ health.
- steve_adams_86 6y agoIt gives me the creeps every time I see someone heating up their lunch in an old plastic container. Old dairy containers with snap lids are very common. It must be leaching so much garbage into the food. I can’t tell if that’s phobia due to bad science or these people are actually gradually poisoning themselves.
- rurp 6y agoSame, though it seems hard to determine just how risky it is. I have drank water from thin plastic bottles that had been sitting out in the sun and elements for a quite a while. I don't know exactly how long, probably a year or two. The water was gross! I attribute it to the plastic breaking down and contaminating the water, but that's just a guess.
- wruza 6y agoI have the same concern about the new plastic everyday (food delivery sends these). It feels that old plastics only diffuse components into a food once, and then gradually less, but new ones do that again and again. Idk if that is true or a phobia too.
- Scoundreller 6y agoI believe that. Contact time is a thing. Kinda like how cars recommend a very short interval for the first oil change: because that’s when all the metal is flaking off. Once your engine is old, everything is smoothed out and there’s a lot less surface area.
- Robotbeat 6y agoPVC and BPA are not common in disposable thin plastic bottles nowadays. Reusing them is much more efficient than a metal water bottle (that also Typically has a plastic liner and other plastic parts, if your Amistics for some reason doesnt allow plastic) in terms of embodied energy and total mass of material. I like mason jars because they actually do last a long time and are pretty cheap, but don’t hate on reusing cheap plastic bottles!
- emerongi 6y agoThanks for the advice. I use the same plastic bottle for months when going to the gym. Should I stop doing this?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- strogonoff 6y agoHere's the case that makes me cringe: I know some families that don't think their tap water is clean enough to drink, and they reuse disposable plastic bottles for months to store spring water that the whole household drinks. That can't be good long term. In your situation it's probably not worth stressing too much if your plastic bottle is built to be reusable or if it's not your primary source of water. It's difficult to find reliable data on this, partially because how bad is the least durable kind of plastic legally allowed for drink containers depends on local (and changing) regulations. In presence of such uncertainty, personally for myself and loved ones I apply the following reasoning: – If bottle’s plastic is thin and easily crumples, routine handling and refilling will cause plastic surface to degrade and microscopic cracks will make chemicals from the container more likely to seep into water. – There is a well-publicized experiment from last year that found varying amounts of microplastics in newly purchased water bottled in plastic; I find it likely that after reusing a plastic container not designed to be reusable the amount of microplastics would only grow. – Glass bottles are great!
- brewdad 6y agoGlass bottles are great, until you use them for the bottle flipping game. That's actually the main reason I use a metal bottle. I am clumsy and inattentive enough of the time to make using glass on the go a dangerous proposition. Glass remains the container of choice when sitting at my desk or table though.
- dflock 6y agoYes. Get a stainless steel one and use it forever.
- Ensorceled 6y agoSince I’m literally talking about institutional reuse of glassware and institutional recycling of aluminum, and advocating not using plastic at all; I’m not sure what nit you are picking with me.
- kbenson 6y agoTo me it seemed you were talking about them as examples of the main point, reuse. I think the nit is not addressing plastics at all, and their caveats. I think it was meant less as a "you got this wrong" nit and more as a "we need to cover this too if talking about reuse" one.
- at-fates-hands 6y agoI always found it fascinating that in the 70's and 80's everybody moved away from glass and paper to plastic. I mean literally anything that could be converted to plastic from paper or glass was. Do you think we'll ever revert back to just paper and glass again? We are making some good strides with paper straws and the like, and mandating people bring reusable bags to the grocery stores - but I still see many of the stores I shop at still use plastic bags.
- Scoundreller 6y agoProbably not as natural gas remains dirt cheap in parts of the world. Turning it into polyethylene is a way to export those low prices.