• groet@feddit.org
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      7 hours ago

      In the EU bottle caps have to be attached to the bottle so they stay together when thrown away. Everyone working in recycling and especially people working in stuff like river cleanups praise how this is a gigantic improvement. It is universally a good thing.

      Even Coca Cola used it in advertising to sell how environmentally friendly they are (by not breaking the law). However they are only doing it in countries where it is legally required and nowhere else.

      • save_the_humans@leminal.space
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        6 hours ago

        As I understood it, the bottle caps are too small to be recycled seperately. They can’t be processed together with the bottle, and get tossed anyway. If attached, there’s a good possibility none of it gets recycled.

        Just looked it up, depends on your local region. Mine requires caps be removed, and bottle rinsed and flattened.

        • groet@feddit.org
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          6 hours ago

          That’s just not true. Bottles are made from 4 different plastics that all have to be separated for recycling (bottle, label, cap+ribbon, soft part inside the cap to make a waterproof seal). The ribbon part the cap is attached to is also present in bottles where the cap is not attached and it has to be removed anyway. So nothing really changed there except the part that has to be removed is bigger now.

          Despite what right wing nuts that have to be against every progress say, there is literally no downside to this law.

          But the biggest improvement is from nature cleanup crews that previously always found the bottles but never the caps.

          • save_the_humans@leminal.space
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            4 hours ago

            Well on my county’s recycling website it literally says the cap cannot be recycled and must be removed and thrown in the trash. Im certain this was the case the last place I lived too.

            If the EU has recycling centers that can process them together that’s great and the law makes sense.

            Not sure what needs to change aside from heavily limiting the production of plastic, but recycling has basically always been bullshit. One small win for plastic bottles in the EU doesn’t solve the larger issue of every other mixed material or dirty plastic container that ultimately ends up in a landfill.

            How many people clean and dry everything they recycle? How many people separate different plastics, mixed material items, or remove recyclable parts from things they throw away? So much of what can be recycled doesn’t get recycled.

            Looks like less than 10% of what can be recycled gets recycled, and up to 30% of what ends up in a recycling centers is trashed anyway. It should never have been the consumers responsibility. Wish people would stop buying this crap.

            Plastic is the worst of all https://oceana.org/blog/recycling-myth-month-plastic-bottle-you-thought-you-recycled-may-have-been-downcycled-instead/. This is nothing but performative. Might only falsly appease someone’s conscience.

            • dustyData@lemmy.world
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              1 hour ago

              Your country is lying to you. No surprise there, as all governments lie. There are plants specialized in recycling only the caps. For certain regulatory markets, the caps are easier to recycle than the bottles. As with anything, it’s all about what infrastructure is in place, and how well it meshes with already existing manufacturing. You do what is best suited to your local waste management. But be aware that it is by no means global or a universal (chemical or otherwise) limitation. Governments need to regulate both sides to make recycling viable.