Thoughts? I am currently trying to avoid using plastic packed drinks as much as possible due to it’s limited and finite recycle count
Aren’t aluminum cans still plastic bottles on the inside?
A standalone plastic bottle is 20-40g of PET.
The lining of a soda can is about 1g of BPA.
They have plastic coating, yes, but way less plastic and way easier to just burn it off in the crucible.
Plastic burns easily in all types of fires.
That’s like saying cars and trucks are made of paint because they have a layer of it on the outside.
Can liners are both an extremely small portion of the overall container as well as being absolutely essential for most canned beverages.
Additionally, many/most manufacturers have or are moving away from liner materials that contain BPA.
One important thing to keep in mind that is that you cannot “just” make things from aluminium.
One reason the beverage can gets away with using so little alu for so much content is that that it’s pressurized and hence held in shape by its very content. This is why flat drinks have to have the extra air inside it be overpressurized and hence will stil fizz briefly when opened. And the shape of a bottle is not good for being held up by uniform pressure.
We can put non-pressurized things into it when either the content is light (cremes etc) or is in itself rather stable (powders). But even then we use a lot of metal for the container. To truly save, it needs to be something that pressurizes from the inside, which among other things can be inherently unsafe (spray cans come to mind, don’t puncture them).That’s nice but aluminum is not the only option.
There’s tin and glass that could be used for several things.
I buy distilled water for my daughter’s baby formula bottles. They all come in plastic jugs and I really wish I could just bring a glass jar somewhere to get it refilled. Because I just know all that plastic is leeching into the water.
It’s a shame that glass jars are so uncommon around here. The plastic is so wasteful.
you are a good person
You do realize that aluminum bottles are plastic bottles yes ? Plastic bottle with a thin aluminium insert to block sunlight from degrading the contents.
ok maybe so but this makes op pretty good
I am currently trying to avoid using plastic packed drinks as much as possible due to it’s limited and finite recycle count
We have a water company here that sells water in cans called Liquid Death, I don’t know if they are international or not.
We also have beer companies that use aluminum bottles over cans, might just be Bud Light and Coors but I dont drink cheap pilsners.
We don’t recycle enough and don’t have the capacity for processing if we did recycle enough. There is no real financial incentive for companies to spend more on aluminum bottles vs cans or plastic. Aluminum bottles have a plastic liner because drinking out of raw aluminum tastes bad and might contribute to Alzheimer’s(might not be true).
I want us to go back to glass bottles but we stopped using them so much because we are terrible people and leave broken glass everywhere and plastic is better for shareholders. Seriously, we we were using glass the amount of broken glass shards in parks, streets, sidewalks, parking lots was a problem when I was a kid.
We don’t recycle enough
Maybe if recycling wasn’t a massive joke it might be useful and people might embrace it.
The reality is no matter how much effort you put into recycling it’s going to a landfill or incinerator.
“Recycling” outside of glass bottles is essentially non existent.
The answer is to stop producing plastic.
The majority of the aluminum in circulation in the US is recycled. It’s significantly more than even glass and paper. The reason is because it’s much cheaper to use recycled aluminum than raw.
But you’re right when it comes to plastic.
My thought is that it’s incredible how enormous the packaged drink market is. Tap water + filter + insulated bottle. Profit.
I understand that not everyone has the luxury of planning ahead but the drink market should be less than half of what it is today. Most people drink bottled drinks because of marketing and subliminal pressures and habits.
There are alternatives to plastic. As stupidly expensive as it is, Liquid Death is water in a can. I’ve also seen water in paper cartons and larger bottles made of glass. Soda is available in cans as well. Teas and juices are available in glass. You may be choosing to drink a particular brand that’s only available in plastic.
You have plenty of choices. You have the choice to drink a particular product out of plastic. You have the choice to not drink that. You may be faced with having to pay a little more or to drink something that’s not your favorite. In an ideal world, more people would spend a little more on their purchases to increase demand for the manufacturing of a product which could bring prices down while decreasing demand and manufacturing of popular packaging.
We have saturated our environment with aluminum to the point where one of our “background ailments” is light metal poisoning from aluminum - most notably as a decline in intelligence. We keep ‘choosing’ the cheapest easiest solution to liquids packaging and distribution - and each one of them - EXCEPT GLASS - has come back to bite us on the ass.
I don’t like cans because the drink gets so hot so fast, it isn’t insulating at all, but in general don’t buy individually packaged anything. Lots of glass bottles of booze and wine, but much less “turnover” that way, a few a month. Water from the tap, fancy water we have a Lifestraw pitcher in the refrigerator (tap water is safe here but the filtered cooled water is delicious). Bring an empty water bottle to concerts, or the sealed liter bottle (whichever is allowed).
So not none, still a few here and there, now and then. But mostly just try to avoid anything packed for individual servings.
Weight is also a factor. All these bottles/etc are often transported in very carbon intensive supply chains. Any additional weight scales that footprint and has to be managed.
