5 ms·
Does anyone else remember there being stories in past about increased cork production being unsustainable as in not enough availability and quality was getting
by Ekaros 3y ago
Does anyone else remember there being stories in past about increased cork production being unsustainable as in not enough availability and quality was getting lower? Or am I remembering wrong.
- collegeburner 3y agovery similar arc to "plastic bags are bad, save the trees!" -> "plastic is bad, paper is renewable!"
- neltnerb 3y ago> very similar arc to "plastic bags are bad, save the trees!" -> "plastic is bad, paper is renewable!" Over four decades, environmentalists have simply won the discussion. 99% of paper products made in the US are made using farmed wood. Now paper is renewable enough that I don't worry about putting it in the trash (since I know we have an incinerator). Still uses petrochemicals for harvesting and processing, there's definitely a risk that certain kinds of tree farms are counterproductive. I don't think that's ever really broadly been the case though, it sounds like a whitepaper released by a thinktank funded by a plastic company to me. Those often get repackaged into low effort local news, it's not surprising that people get so confused.
- h0l0cube 3y agoBut also environmentalists aren't the ones pushing for paper straws, it's mostly greenwashing by large corps and governments. Though from a conservation perspective, less plastic waste is probably a good thing for waterways and the life that depends on them (including us).
- neltnerb 3y agoI suppose they are, in the sense that I would wave a magic wand that replaced plastic in all applications where it was not being used as a critical material with a more expensive but more sustainable alternative. Straws I guess get wrapped up in that, though I'd sooner just not use a straw and don't see why that's not the default. Seems strange to me that adult humans want a goofy plastic tube in order to make drinking liquid enjoyable enough. To me the bigger issues are single use plastic cups and bottles, to which I say elimination and alternatives like water bottles and aluminum cans, paper cups, aluminum cups (did you know you can buy aluminum solo cups?), and glassware can really meet almost every need. It's a matter of volume and pollution versus real net utility versus the technology they replace. There's some advanced plastics and things for packaging that are cool, but they don't need to be on every single thing.
- ffgjgf1 3y agoThere is no reason why those plastics have to end up in waterways though
- h0l0cube 3y agoThere’s a whole bunch of terrible outcomes that aren’t necessary
- toomuchtodo 3y agoCork can be grown and harvested sustainably, as long as there are enough trees (which live ~300 years) to meet demand (cork is bark harvested like shearing sheep). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_(material) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_(material)
- pstuart 3y agoThis is great and it would be nice to see it done sustainably (and hopefully supporting small businesses to do it). But there are risks: https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PDIS-03-16-0408-FE https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PDIS-03-16-0408-F... Another interesting option in this realm is mycelium, which could be better scaled on an industrial level.
- Terr_ 3y ago> Another interesting option in this realm is mycelium, which could be better scaled on an industrial level. I, for one, welcome our industrial biological process overlords. Especially in the cases where it supplants the more traditional kind that often involves lots of animal cruelty. I have no intrinsic objection to eating steak from a disembodied vat-muscle.
- voakbasda 3y agoWhen it comes to industrial processes, I have zero faith that a biological alternative will end up being better than synthetics, in the same way how certified organic products are still allowed to use “approved” chemicals, many of which are even more toxic or harmful than the conventional solutions they are meant to replace.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y agoThere's not enough cork, nor will there ever be, to make a meaningful dent in total plastic consumption (in current terms). We produce 380M tons of plastic per year. IIUC, that's about the size of the entire lumber industry - of which cork is a very small insignificant percentage. Cork has a very small part of the planet where it grows well, and basically everything else valuable grows well there, too... The Nanocrystalline Cellulose market will be bigger than cork by 2030 probably - and even that is 25 years away from making a real dent in plastic consumption (aggressively).
- lemmox 3y agoYes, I recall this as well. It didn't pass the smell test to me - probably wineries making up a reason to justify switching to screw caps.
- eikenberry 3y agoEspecially funny given that screw caps are inherently superior in every way except for hipster signalling.
- pyrale 3y ago...And for plastic caps ending up in the sea for a few centuries.
- gruez 3y agoI don't know about you, but most (all?) of the screw caps I've seen are metal, not plastic.
- pyrale 3y agoFor alcohol, that's true, but most cheap wines use plastic caps around here.
- worik 3y agoHere (New Zealand) all wine at all price points, have screw caps
- eikenberry 3y agoI think the parent was commenting on how screw caps were better than the plastic "cork" style as well.
- klyrs 3y agoThe ones I get are aluminum with a plastic gasket. Which is less plastic than a plastic cap, but not zero.
- casualrandomcom 3y agoI do totally remember. I remember the time when the press cried "there is no cork left on earth!!". I remember the time when cheap wine came with plastic corks. I remember the time when cheap wine had cork corks again.
- tomcam 3y agoI don't drink alcohol but I could tell you about the devastation I felt when Mtn Dew went to high fructose corn syrup.
- tomcam 3y agoSure, downvote my pain, you monsters
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deebosong 3y agoYour corn-based pain amuses me, cretin. I'll deign some packets of cane sugar to alleviate your pathetic woes. (Honestly, HFCS prob has wreaked legit havoc via the "death by 1000 papercuts" method.)
- tomcam 3y agoI am groveling in pure joy
- dylan604 3y agowhat does HFCS have to do with the availability (or not) of cork?
- malfist 3y agoThis isn't reddit
- 3y ago
- neltnerb 3y agoI remember there being an issue where in some parts of the world the cork quality was not sufficient for wine bottles so screw caps had become more popular. Probably for the best, screw caps really seem better for everyone.
- al_borland 3y agoI was just posting in another comment that I remember all kinds of warning about the world running out of cork, which led to wines shipping with plastic or synthetic corks. The general thought, at least from the things I heard, was only really good wine had a real cork, as the cheap ones couldn’t afford it. Hopefully this isn’t some kind of Mandela effect. I don’t think it is.