• Ech
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    179 months ago

    Cartons have plastic too, yeah? Cause plain cardboard isn’t staying mess free for long if you fill it with milk. That said, it’s probably less plastic, though this is also less plastic than just making the whole jug non-recyclable. Why they don’t just make the label recyclable too is beyond me.

    • @[email protected]
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      139 months ago

      The problem is plastic is great for food safety. The way it makes air and water-tight seals, that can easily be broken, is hard to replicate. If cans could open, on their own, the way sealed plastic bottles do, then we could have easier recycling via metal containers. But the self-open cans make sharp edges and nobody’s invented a way around that yet.

        • @Duamerthrax
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          89 months ago

          They also make Aluminum “Bottles”. There’s going to be a plastic gasket on the metal cap, but that’s magnitude less plastic then a whole bottle and I already know what salad dressing looks like. Lighter to transport then glass as well. If the supply chain is short, glass can work, but the longer it is, the more sense aluminum is.

            • @Duamerthrax
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              19 months ago

              Aluminum cans have a thin plastic liner. The aluminum toxicity is about aluminum oxide anyway. The main exposure source for that is hygiene products that use it as a whitener.

        • @stockRot
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          49 months ago

          There are so many other plastic use cases in food storage and transport. Like sure, we can bring back milk men but what about everything else?

              • @[email protected]
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                -19 months ago

                Good one! Industry and consumption problem. Also I assume by candy bars you are referring to chocolate bars.

                Industry: could offer chocolate bars in bulk packed sealed boxes or bags with waxy cardboard or paper packaging. This already exists for many independent products. However vendors and producers want to maximize profit on individual wrapped item, preying on weak wills around the cashiers.

                Consumption: chocolate bars are bad for you. I’d tax sweets and sugary beverages a similar way we tax tobacco, cannabis and alcohol, so that it can give back to society’s increased healthcare costs and dissuade excess consumption via increased prices. Currently producers like Mars, Mondelez and Hershey’s get away scott free for poisoning the populace.

      • @[email protected]
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        79 months ago

        So we have all this plastic waste because people can’t be bothered to operate a can opener?

        • Ech
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          79 months ago

          Basically. Convenience pushes most, if not all, of the packaging changes we see. Plastic has been very good at accomplishing the things people want to be done with packaging at a low, immediate cost to the user. Turns out the long term cost is much more drastic.

        • @[email protected]
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          19 months ago

          Because people like you can’t be bothered to respect their fellow humans in terms of use case design.

          But yes. Until we find a way to use can openers to keep small amounts of ketchup sterile, it’s because people can’t be bothered to use a can opener.

          • @[email protected]
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            19 months ago

            Sure there’s a use case for aluminum cans and and a use case re-usable containers too.

            But there’s a lot of people like that think that finding a use case that requires plastic for one thing proves that plastic is needed for everything. This is a fallacy.

    • @Teanut
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      39 months ago

      I think they used to wax the cardboard. Maybe they still do?

      • Ech
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        39 months ago

        Depending on the type of wax used, it could be better, or it could be the same as plastic.

        • @Duamerthrax
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          49 months ago

          Wax or plastic coated paper is still going to use less plastic then a whole plastic judge. Don’t make perfect the enemy of better.

          • Ech
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            09 months ago

            That said, it’s probably less plastic

            Did you miss me saying that?

      • @SoleInvictus
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        29 months ago

        That’s how my milk used to come when I was a little kid.