• Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Imagine doing something slightly inconvenient, let alone something that can take a whole second.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, I guess you are right.

        The whole system is (intentionally) super infuriating & inconvenient.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      I think the point was, you’re removing plastic from plastic to recycle plastic. The plastic you removed won’t be recycled. So…what’s the point? It’s terrible package design.

      • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        The plastic you’re removing can’t be recycled. if left on the bottle, some recycling centers (maybe most actually) just throw out the bottle because it’s more cost effective then preparing the bottle for recycling.

        Any and all plastic bottles experience this problem (plastic bottle caps are bad too). This is a company making it more likely your bottle will be recycled, by making it easier to remove the non recyclable materials.

        • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Yes.

          They don’t recycle even the recyclable part or alternatively the unrecyclable part gets burned off in the process (both bad options).

  • Miaou@jlai.lu
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    10 months ago

    Standard practice in Germany but I think there’s no recycling in the USA (assuming you’re there) so quite pointless in this case

  • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Plastic is better off just going in the trash. The ability to recycle it is largely a lie. Especially plastic that touched food as it needs to be clean to recycle.

    • nyankas@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      This is absolute nonsense.

      In Germany, between 38-48% of plastic is recycled (source). Sure, that‘s far from all of it, but still far, far better than nothing.

      The recycling rate might be lower in other countries, but just giving up and putting everything in the regular trash is probably the worst thing you could do.

    • Vanon@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      What kills me is that just a couple morons can contaminate a large batch of recyclables, that could’ve otherwise been perfect. But I guess humanity will always have this sort of problem, until it kills us.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    You mean you have to remove the plastic label before you throw the bottle into a recycling bin which gets dumped into a landfill never to be seen again.

  • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Imagine the massive inconvenience of separating your plastics so that your recycling facility can actually recycle more plastic waste instead of if ending up in a landfill 🤦

    • guacupado@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Imagine the massive inconvenience of having to separate plastics to recycle when you literally work at a plastic recycling plan.

      • Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s not that the plastic isn’t recyclable it’s that you cant mix plastics and recycle them. So if there is a doubt at all what a plastic is then it’s thrown away or if it can’t be separated from other materials or contaminated with oil or something.

  • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    They should teach AI how to sort garbage and do it for us instead of making it create videos of pirate ships in a cup of coffee

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Nearly all containers (glass or plastic) need to have their label removed to recycle properly. And you must rinse them out, too.

    Some can be recycled with the label on, but only if the plastic used is the type that can be recycled. Confusing and frustrating, yes.

    The crappy thing is that some labels really don’t come off easily because they’ve been glued in place… those are awful to recycle because it requires quite a bit of extra effort, soaking, adhesive remover, etc… 😂

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      And you must rinse them out, too.

      This step right here has to end. Recycling facilities should have cycling filtered graywater loops to do the rinsing. Using clean drinking water to rinse out containers is an absolute waste.

          • TwoCubed@feddit.de
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            10 months ago

            Not really. We do have to make sure to empty the container as good as possible though.

            • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Man, I was looking into Germany’s waste infrastructure in general, and damn, I’m jealous, lol. I couldn’t find any concrete answers to the degree on which you should rinse plastic, though. That said, I imagine it’s probably in your best interest to at least give a quick rinse to avoid your own bin getting nasty, even if not required.

              • gigachad@feddit.de
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                10 months ago

                What I found is the term löffelrein, a wonderful German word meaning something like “as clean as possible when using a spoon” for joghurt for example.

                I usually bring my trash down before it get’s nasty. Our “bio trash” is more of a problem, as anything biodegradable gets into it which attracts fruit flys. Rinsing plastics is still just a waste of water (and time).

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        I agree, but rinsing at home addresses multiple concerns.

        I think the issue is that some people throw out containers with their lids on and completely covered in food matter.

        a) it makes it difficult/impossible to actually recycle when it finally gets there. b) it attracts wildlife to your recycling bins.

        It’s just best practice, really.

        • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 months ago

          it attracts wildlife to your recycling bins

          I’d argue this point is nullified given recycling and trash live next to each other for pick-up (at least in the US). If your bins don’t seal to keep scent away, they’ll be targeting the trash cans anyways.

          In parts of the world where clean drinking water is at a premium and increasingly more so, (like the western half and soon 2/3 of the US) it definitely matters to conserve the water we need to live whenever possible.

          This brings up another good point though, packaging design should be changed to ensure the maximum amount of purchased product can be removed for use as easily as possible. So many containers today are designed to be sold as “this has 20oz in it!” and only 18oz is accessible. They then have tiny necks or convoluted lips or shapes to make reaching into the container with tools to remove the rest of the product difficult. The companies don’t care about the loss of product as the extra 2oz costs them essentially nothing. Even though that added weight is wasting energy being transported at every single stage of the supply chain to be thrown away at the end, they got the sale because it said 20 instead of 18 on the bottle and they could mark up the price accordingly!

          tl;dr on the last paragraph: If the container is designed to start its recycling journey as devoid of product as possible, the whole process will have less cleanup and energy/water use, whatever the process is.

          • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            I’d argue this point is nullified given recycling and trash live next to each other for pick-up (at least in the US). If your bins don’t seal to keep scent away, they’ll be targeting the trash cans anyways.

            I’m Canadian, and in my municipality, we have recycling (cardboard, plastic, glass), compost (food matter), and garbage (pretty much anything that can’t be recycled.

            The compost bins are sealed, so pests are never a concern. I don’t have issues with open recycling bins, but did before I learned how to actually recycle stuff. My garbage bags never have issues, since they don’t have food in them.

            I can see issues in places that don’t offer such a robust garbage/recycling program.

            In parts of the world where clean drinking water is at a premium and increasingly more so, (like the western half and soon 2/3 of the US) it definitely matters to conserve the water we need to live whenever possible.

            100% agree. It frustrates me to have to clean something that’s going to be thrown out, but if you’re strategic about it, you can find ways to do this with very minimal impact on water use.

            Not to go off track, but I found that since I’ve been cooking my own beans, making my own non-dairy milk, and relying less on packaged good, my recycling bins are nearly empty every week. Reducing or reusing is often much better for everyone than recycling.

      • Rinox@feddit.it
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        10 months ago

        I work for a plastic recycling plant manufacturer, specifically for the sorting, shredding, cleaning and drying steps of plastic recycling (after that you usually have melting and extrusion before ending up with small plastic pellets that can be used to make other stuff).

        I can confirm you, we have “cycling filtered grey water” cleaning. You don’t need to clean up your plastic containers, just empty them. Also various chemicals will be used in the process, when necessary.

        We also make de-labelers to remove the labels from plastic bottles, although this kind of label in the picture is extremely hard to remove and, afaik, either requires human labor (aka poor countries with labor conditions you don’t want to think about) or just becomes waste. So yeah, this is some of the worst shit.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      It would be so much easier if drink companies just used standardized containers instead of making their own homemade special designs to try and look fancy.

      Orange juice was fine in a 2L cardboard box. We just recently got a jug of Tropicana or some shit and it’s some fancy moulded pitcher shape with a spout and flip up plastic lid. That just makes everything more difficult, especially recycling because it will be a pain to rinse out I bet.

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        I’d be 100% ok if all containers were mason jars. Most of the time, I can’t even reuse glass jars because of their stupid, non-standard lids!

        Cereal should just come in a biodegradable plastic, no box.

        But standardize everything. Never mind hassling consumers not to use plastic bags when companies are putting layer upon layer of plastic on their products. If a manufacturer can’t use a standardized package, they shouldn’t be allowed to sell the product without a massive environmental tax added onto their product.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Some can be recycled with the label on, but only if the plastic used is the type that can be recycled

      Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that only true if the plastic uses for the label is in the same category (same recycling symbol) as the bottle?

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        In my experience, some labels are quite detailed and will say whether you need to separate the label or lid from the container, or not.

        But generally speaking, yes, assuming the material class is the same, it should be fine to recycle them together.

  • Zacryon@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    You need to separate most materials in order to recycle them. The plastic of a lid is different from that of a bottle which are both different from a wrapping. Separating materials is key to successful recycling. A lot of times stuff can’t get recyled because people don’t separate it before throwing it away.

    Or you could just use, you know, reusable materials.

    • burningmatches@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      Separation requirements vary. In the UK, plastic bottle caps are generally tethered to the bottle now to prevent people from separating them.

      • WildPalmTree@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Why?! I dont get it. What kind of psychopath doesn’t put the cap back on when empty. Who opens a bottle, throws the cap away, and chugs away?! How is this a problem? I’m just so baffled this was/is a problem.

        • burningmatches@feddit.uk
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          10 months ago

          Uh, I was replying to someone who said it’s essential to separate lids from their bottles. It’s not psychopaths who are doing this — it’s people who think it’s the right thing to do.

  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Not this one, every one. The only difference is that they bother to put this info on the label.