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Part of the reason of standardizing is to make sure the bottles are of a particular strength, quality, durability. Currently, some bottles break after a few use

Part of the reason of standardizing is to make sure the bottles are of a particular strength, quality, durability. Currently, some bottles break after a few uses, some break easily, some have unique caps that if you lose or break, you can never buy a replacement. Standardizing has many benefits, just look at mason jars. Look at standardization in other industries. Imagine if every company has their own standard tire? or phone charging port?

dane-pgp 4y ago
> to make sure the bottles are of a particular strength, quality, durability. That sounds like something the free market can solve. If people want bottles that last 5 years, then some company can offer a 5 year guarantee, or there could be independent testing laboratories that verify these claims. > some have unique caps that if you lose or break, you can never buy a replacement. I think you're more likely to lose or break the whole bottle than just the cap, but in any case, I don't think the government needs to ban all innovation in bottle caps just to solve the non-existent problem of people losing those caps. You're right, though, that if refilling machines needed bottles to have a specific opening type in order to connect to the machine securely, then the industry would need to settle on a common design. Fortunately there is already a manufacturers association which would make that possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%26_Container_Manufacturers_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%26_Container_Manufact...
- samemail88 4y ago
  I don’t know if the free market can solve certain problems like these. Take the phone charger example. The EU is forcing it to standardize to USB-C. Do you see it as a good or bad thing? Couldn’t you say its going to limit innovation? But standardizing it helps cut down on e-waste and helps the environment overall.
  - dane-pgp 4y ago
    I agree with the need to standardize phone chargers, but that's quite a different market. It is much more likely you'll let someone borrow your charger than borrow your bottle top, and also more likely that you'll buy a spare charger than a spare bottle top. Bottle tops are also probably easier to recycle than cables.

dane-pgp 4y ago

> to make sure the bottles are of a particular strength, quality, durability. That sounds like something the free market can solve. If people want bottles that last 5 years, then some company can offer a 5 year guarantee, or there could be independent testing laboratories that verify these claims. > some have unique caps that if you lose or break, you can never buy a replacement. I think you're more likely to lose or break the whole bottle than just the cap, but in any case, I don't think the government needs to ban all innovation in bottle caps just to solve the non-existent problem of people losing those caps. You're right, though, that if refilling machines needed bottles to have a specific opening type in order to connect to the machine securely, then the industry would need to settle on a common design. Fortunately there is already a manufacturers association which would make that possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%26_Container_Manufacturers_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%26_Container_Manufact...

samemail88 4y ago
I don’t know if the free market can solve certain problems like these. Take the phone charger example. The EU is forcing it to standardize to USB-C. Do you see it as a good or bad thing? Couldn’t you say its going to limit innovation? But standardizing it helps cut down on e-waste and helps the environment overall.
- dane-pgp 4y ago
  I agree with the need to standardize phone chargers, but that's quite a different market. It is much more likely you'll let someone borrow your charger than borrow your bottle top, and also more likely that you'll buy a spare charger than a spare bottle top. Bottle tops are also probably easier to recycle than cables.