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It doesn't have to be perfect, as long as it lasts much longer it's already a big win.
by Tepix 2y ago
It doesn't have to be perfect, as long as it lasts much longer it's already a big win.
- ta1243 2y agoIs it? Based on what metric. If a glass costs €1 and lasts 1 year, and an unbreakable glass costs €10 and lasts 5 years, that's not a big win.
- dotancohen 2y agoNot if going out and buying the glasses takes time, or if storing additional spare glasses takes precious space, or cleaning the broken glass takes workers' time, or if the broken glass could be a hazard, or there may be supply issues with getting the same uniform glasses years later, or any other number of reasons.
- signatoremo 2y agoOh the new version of the glasses will be cheaper, more durable, lighter, more energy efficient to make. The point remains, longer lasting glasses may or may not be superior.
- pixelfarmer 2y agoIt is all about metrics and how you bend them to whatever you prefer. However, the more this deviates from actual reality, the more likely reality will eventually show up and bust the show in the most horrible way possible.
- dotancohen 2y agoYou don't know that when making the initial purchase.
- xnickb 2y agoThe article talks about sustainability, so clearly Euro isn't the unit to measure that.
- ta1243 2y agoIdeally the cost would include all externalities and thus allow people to judge the value and bare the full cost. But kWh, or grammes of glass, or carbon credits, or whatever you want. Normal glass is very recyclable and doesn't require a lot of energy or resource to recycle. "Long life" glass may well not be recycled at all.
- Tepix 2y agoGlass production requires a lot of energy, doesn't it?
- Tepix 2y agoCreating glass requires a lot of energy, which should be reflected in its price. Chances are creating a much stronger glass will not be much more expensive than a normal glass.
- t43562 2y agoThe problem is really about who gets the benefit of the longevity - e.g. I feel that with LED lightbulbs etc it is mostly the producer who has soaked up the economic benefit. As a user you think it's going to last longer and then for one reason or another it doesn't - they've worked out how to introduce some unreliability. Now you're paying 5x more for 1.5x life. etc etc.
- cess11 2y agoI have a few glasses with handles from the fifties (or as far back as the twenties, there's no stamp on them) that are quite brittle and will for sure break at the bottom if you pour hot water in them. Seems to me like they last long enough when taken care of, and in situations where you don't the "unbreakable" glass splinters into a rather nasty dust like material.
- actionfromafar 2y agoI like the drinking glasses from hardened glass. When they break, they shatter into a lot of almost cubic pieces, not into little syringe like splinter like regular glass.
- mytailorisrich 2y agoI suspect that waste produced by broken glasses is so minuscule compared to the overall glass production/waste that this is largely irrelevant. Edit: Apparently glass cookware and drinking glasses are often not recyclable. This seems like a more important aspect to improve than durability even if, again, still overall a small improvement compared to overall glass industry.
- ecjhdnc2025 2y agoBroken glasses in bars, for example, have a lot more impacts than just waste. Broken glass has to be cleaned up, causes injuries, even causes lost product in some situations. I was in a cocktail bar once with three friends who ordered us the same chilled cocktail, served there day in, day out, and as the cocktails were poured into the glasses, three of the four glasses broke. Plink, plink, plink. Glasses too hot, cocktail too cold, some other handling problem. Who knows. But tougher glass might not have done that.
- mytailorisrich 2y agoThat sounds like clutching at straws while not really showing how that'd make a significant difference to anything. Make all glasses recyclable. Probably more important but less marketable for a new startup idea...
- ecjhdnc2025 2y agoI don't think it is "clutching at straws" for a bar to want glasses that break less frequently, causing fewer safety concerns, and to be prepared to pay the extra, but whatever.
- inglor_cz 2y agoA friend used to work in a student bar as a bartender. Broken glass was legitimately a safety issue. Drunken people can cut themselves quite creatively, including severed sinews. Ironically, most of his patrons were medical students.