I know they’re supposed to be good for the environment. But… Holy smokes they drive me up the wall. They really do!

I had no trouble adapting when aluminum can pull-tabs got replaced by push-tabs, because it was pretty much the same movement, and I could see the immediate advantage of not getting cut by a pull-tab.

But the tethered cap is fighting decades of muscle memory in me: I’m used to taking the cap off with one hand and keeping it there while taking a swig with the other. Now I unscrew the cap with one hand, but I still have to hold the cap so it’s out of the way. It feels like drinking in handcuffs each and every time…

So unlike the pull-tab, the tethered plastic bottle cap is one of those compulsory eco solutions that constantly make you feel ever-so-slightly more miserable all the time, and I hate that because ecology only works when it brings something of value both to people and to the environment.

  • @DontTreadOnBigfootEnglish
    7•3 months ago

    Op, where are you at? I’ve never seen these OR the aluminum push tabs you mentioned

    • Altima NEOEnglish
      14•3 months ago

      The push tab is what’s common on aluminum cans for the last several decades. The 70s had the pull tab style cans.

      • @DontTreadOnBigfootEnglish
        5•3 months ago

        Ok, so "pull tabs"are what you see on like cans of SPAM?

          • anon6789English
            5•3 months ago

            I feel like I’ve only ever seen Donald Duck OJ as part of a cheap hotel’s complimentary breakfast! 😆

            I remember foil tabs like those on a few things, but I was born a smidge too late for “pop tops,” which pulled off the same way, but were as thick as the to of the can. People supposedly just tossed the little shrapnel pieces everywhere for people to get poked with. Hence the switch to a tab that stayed connected to the can.

    • @TugglesEnglish
      4•3 months ago

      Just got back from England and Scotland and virtually every plastic bottle had these. It was the first time I’ve ever seen them before too (I live in the US)