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Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#351

Post by nickff »

korethr wrote: post #347
nickff wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably a cost & manufacturing issue; I would guess that a draw that long is physically difficult to perform. It may be practical for something 1/2 or 1/3 the length of the pringles can.

I agree that it's probably a manufacturing cost issue, but I disagree that a draw that long is necessarily difficult to perform. One can buy extruded aluminum in various shapes, in very thin wall thicknesses, in lengths measured in meters or more. At a previous job, I semi-regularly worked with aluminum angle with about about 1mm wall thickness, several feet long. And note that the length of a typical energy drink is…

Pringles could simply pressurize their cans if strength was the issue, by sealing the cans in a pressurized environment; it would be a little more expensive than for soda, but not a deal-breaker.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#352

Post by rdiddly »

Nonetheless it's possible to recycle them. Well the foil you tear off is definitely trash and the lid most likely also, but the wall of the can, you can cut a slit down the side with a knife and separate it from the metal bottom. Bottom goes with metals, rectangular lined cardboard sheet goes with aseptics (lined cartons etc) if your area has a program for that.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#353

Post by bobthepanda »

rdiddly wrote: post #352

Nonetheless it's possible to recycle them. Well the foil you tear off is definitely trash and the lid most likely also, but the wall of the can, you can cut a slit down the side with a knife and separate it from the metal bottom. Bottom goes with metals, rectangular lined cardboard sheet goes with aseptics (lined cartons etc) if your area has a program for that.

How likely do you find that people will actually do this though? If people are not likely to do it that makes the proposition rather pointless.

Hello Fresh gave me something (I think it was a cooling pack) that was "recyclable" but really only the outside was, and the inside you had to toss in the trash anyways, and on top of that I'm pretty sure you couldn't touch what was inside it, and to me that pretty much makes it trash with all the "buts" involved.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#354

Post by bobthepanda »

Steltek wrote: post #251
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of states have bottle deposit laws. Stuff goes to recycling rather than direct reuse, but still, the concept is to use the deposit as an incentive to reduce litter and increase recycling rates. At the end of the day, if we want companies to do more sustainable things than using single use packages that cost nearly nothing to dump in a landfill (or litter), then we need to start charging them enough to incenti…

Personal anecdote time, I guess. My state has a bottle deposit law. I don't return anything but it still goes into recycling. We buy very few individually packaged things, I honestly can't be bothered to collect large bulky containers and bring it back to a redemption center for a lousy $5 or less. Generally speaking, our recycling outweighs our trash and (commercial) compost put together. Mostly the bottle deposit d…

Part of the problem is that nickel deposits were introduced in the '70s but have not been adjusted for inflation. The inflation-adjusted value of a nickel in the '70s is closer to a quarter, and if the deposit on the bottle was a quarter people would certainly feel more strongly about collecting said deposit back.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#355

Post by Animats »

akiselev wrote: post #277
conradev wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this article incredibly illuminating: https://theintercept.com/2019/10/18/coca-cola-recycling-plas... The United States is seemingly uniquely bad at this, thanks to - you guessed it - corporate greed. Container deposit laws work: > The United States' overall beverage container recycling rate is approximately 33%, while states with container deposit laws have a 70% average rate of beverage container recycling.…

A significant fraction of that 70% is collected by homeless individuals and others living below the poverty line, for whom recycling is a zero cost, zero training income source that can pay out the same day. If our (California) social safety nets were effective, I suspect the collection rate would be more in line with the national average.

California hit a 110% plastic bottle recycling rate at one point. The California Highway Patrol has been stopping semitrailer trucks coming into the state with plastic bottles for recycling.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#356

Post by crazygringo »

SirLuxuryYacht wrote: post #225
d0gbread wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, here in Vermont we have lots of dry good options (cereal, dry tea, spices, etc) that are bulk into reusable containers. Pringles aren't conducive to that but I'd certainly scoop tortilla chips, goldfish, etc if I could.

Goldfish yes, but the store would have to accept a loss due to crumbification of the chips from people jabbing the scoop into the pile of chips all the time

Heck I think that with a barrel of tortilla chips, most of them would simply crush under its own weight.

Fun fact, this is why berries are sold in clamshells too. You can't buy "bulk" strawberries because they'd just compress into goo. They're actually placed in the clamshells as they're being picked in the fields.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#357

Post by rdiddly »

bobthepanda wrote: post #353
rdiddly wrote: post #352

Nonetheless it's possible to recycle them. Well the foil you tear off is definitely trash and the lid most likely also, but the wall of the can, you can cut a slit down the side with a knife and separate it from the metal bottom. Bottom goes with metals, rectangular lined cardboard sheet goes with aseptics (lined cartons etc) if your area has a program for that.

How likely do you find that people will actually do this though? If people are not likely to do it that makes the proposition rather pointless. Hello Fresh gave me something (I think it was a cooling pack) that was "recyclable" but really only the outside was, and the inside you had to toss in the trash anyways, and on top of that I'm pretty sure you couldn't touch what was inside it, and to me that pretty much makes…

It's possible, is the extent of what I'm saying.

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#358

Post by mattmanser »

bostik wrote: post #280
mattmanser wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We" didn't stop, it was cheaper for Coca-Cola to use plastic. Coca-Cola did it. Stop blaming consumers for corporate choices to slightly increase profits. Like in the UK, Tesco have just inexplicably switched from using cardboard egg containers to plastic ones. Is that my fault?

> Like in the UK, Tesco have just inexplicably switched from using cardboard egg containers to plastic ones. Is that my fault? If you keep buying them, yes. Tesco's beancounters (who are legion) are certainly going to keep track of the overall cost and revenue structure. Assuming the plastic containers cost less and are sold in equal amounts, they will push forward to roll out plastic over cardboard where they can. I…

Slightly OT: I may be a bit unfair picking on Tesco as it turns out the pulp used to make egg cartons has run out because of the demand for eggs from the covid home-baking upswing, they do plan to switch back.

But only because the last time they pulled this stunt back in 2011 or so claiming it was eco-friendly to use "recyclable" plastic it blew up in their face (most of which isn't recycled) .

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#359

Post by mattmanser »

dragonwriter wrote: post #284
munificent wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this attitude that treats corporations as having zero responsibility beyond what they are legally mandated to do. Yes, it is an observable fact that corporatism and market economics incentivize corporations to behave that way. But it is an unjustified leap to turn that into a moral claim that it is ethically acceptable for that to be true. People are incentivized to commit package theft in the US today. The od…

Corporations aren't natural persons and have no ethics. They are abstract creations of law and the only legitimate expectations of corporations as corporations are their responses to structural incentives including enforced legal obligations. We can talk about the ethics of the actions of corporate decision-makers , but only while keeping in mind that structural incentives mean that decision-makers who sacrifice the…

You're confusing their LEGAL status with their MORAL obligations.

Just because there's an easy way for a collective of people to absolve their moral responsibilities by getting a little certificate that says "We're a corporation" doesn't make it right. It's just a legal accident, a mummers farce, and you defending it is morally reprehensible too.

Worse still, it didn't used to be this way till some prat of an economist (probably American) starting saying so, and a bunch of people smelling easy money piled on. Companies used to care about their image, now their "care" about their shareholders (but actually their contractual bonuses and severance packages).

Re: Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare'

#360

Post by korethr »

nickff wrote: post #351
korethr wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it's probably a manufacturing cost issue, but I disagree that a draw that long is necessarily difficult to perform. One can buy extruded aluminum in various shapes, in very thin wall thicknesses, in lengths measured in meters or more. At a previous job, I semi-regularly worked with aluminum angle with about about 1mm wall thickness, several feet long. And note that the length of a typical energy drink is…

Pringles could simply pressurize their cans if strength was the issue, by sealing the cans in a pressurized environment; it would be a little more expensive than for soda, but not a deal-breaker.

I think Pringles cans are already lightly pressurized. "Once you pop, you can't stop", and this picture[1]. Now, that title is misleading; the plane may be at 30,000ft, but the cabin is not at the atmospheric pressure of that altitude, but rather something closer to 7000 ft or so.

Either way, that brings up an interesting (to me, anyway) question: Would it be cheaper for Pringles to simply stamp their cans with thicker walls, or engineer their production line to allow the cans to be sealed at an even higher pressure?

1. https://imgur.com/gallery/oHIK8iF

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