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Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

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Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#151

Post by dirkf »

seszett wrote: post #47
asdff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I go through a 64 gallon trash bin a week. By my back of the envelope calculation thats about 1.3 chevy tahoes worth of trash a year, and that's just me one American out of 400 million so all told we are dealing with maybe half a billion chevy tahoes of trash a year we need to do something with or put someplace if most Americans consume like I do.

> I go through a 64 gallon trash bin a week. That seems absurdly large to me. 64 gallons is 250 litres. We're four and we use about one 30 litres (8 gallons) bag for "rest" trash per week (everything not recyclable, including diapers which take a lot of space, so hopefully soon we can at least halve that trash volume) one 30 litres bag for recyclable plastic/metal every two weeks and maybe one 30 litres bag for compo…

(Fellow country man here!) That still sounds like a lot to be honest. According to the yearly stats we receive from our trash collector: in 2021 our family of 4 produced 27,50kg of non-recyclables. That's not per month or per person but for all of us for the whole year. Granted, no diapers anymore here; that takes quite some space (and weight, which is more important since we pay per kg).

We saw a significant drop after they started collecting plastics separately. We have a 120 litre bin that we put to the curb every two months or so. I don't quite understand what people are throwing out all the time that you can fill a large bin every week...

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#152

Post by blueflow »

abdusco wrote: post #140
blueflow wrote: post #131

Sustainability talk being about ketchup caps while rich people fly to climate conferences in their yachts. Weird world.

> fly to climate conferences in their yachts. Weird world. Yachts that fly. Weird world, indeed :)

Its a reference to this meme format: https://www.reddit.com/r/me_irl/comments/11ayxqc/me_irl/

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#153

Post by Symbiote »

throw1231312 wrote: post #74
rocqua wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few states in the US as per your link, do have this system

Differences: * Single-use plastic bottle have a 25 cent deposit in Germany. This is 5x the 5cents in California. * Germany has enacted this legislation federally. * The legislation also requires that any retailer that sells plastic bottles (and glass bottles) must also facilitate the return of these bottles. I lived in California for a couple of years. I never saw a recycling machine at any Safeway, Walgreens or even…

Michigan does have the sorting machines at supermarkets, just like in Germany. Michigan also has a 10¢ deposit.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#155

Post by bayindirh »

zcw100 wrote: post #150

I’m willing to bet this has nothing to do with recyclability and everything to do with less expensive manufacturing.

I don't think so. There's a huge push for recycling in EU. Every recyclable item either says to be put in the correct recycle bin, or has information about reusing with concentrated refills or by repurposing.

Maybe the same push is not present in the US, but creating a new cap for European market makes sense. Also using the better cap across the whole world to save costs makes sense again.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#156

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

reactordev wrote: post #120
lp4vn wrote: post #4

Very nice. I live alone and often I'm baffled by the sheer amount of garbage that my urban lifestyle generates. I was not alive in the 80's but I was told that people used to use more environment-friendly packaging like glass bottles. Sometimes I wonder why this massive change to everything-should-be-packed-in-plastic happened.

Convenience. In the 80s, people were starting to get over worked and so conveniences like plastic packaging, microwave meals, lunchables, plastic bottles, etc started popping up. Easy, just grab one. When you’re done, just throw it away! Except, then there was a garbage problem - so they campaigned for recycling! Then reality of recycling hit and so they say - separate and clean it first. Meanwhile people like you ar…

The Kodak Fling had to be renamed Funsaver because people were taking out the film and throwing away the cameras. That interfered with their plan to refill the used cameras.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#157

Post by wil421 »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #87
lp4vn wrote: post #4

Very nice. I live alone and often I'm baffled by the sheer amount of garbage that my urban lifestyle generates. I was not alive in the 80's but I was told that people used to use more environment-friendly packaging like glass bottles. Sometimes I wonder why this massive change to everything-should-be-packed-in-plastic happened.

Plastic is essentially a byproduct of fuel production. My understand is that a lot of companies will pay others to take that plastic off their hands. Not only is it cheaper to use plastic than glass, it's positively subsidised.

A realtor friend found a lucrative side business in plastic recycling during the Great Recession. She still makes around $100k a year off of it.

I wish I knew how it worked but her and her business partner don’t talk about it much. Probably for good reason. Pretty sure they take plastic off people hands and sell it to someone who uses it, paid to take it away and then paid again by a buyer.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#158

Post by bayindirh »

infecto wrote: post #142
lp4vn wrote: post #4

Very nice. I live alone and often I'm baffled by the sheer amount of garbage that my urban lifestyle generates. I was not alive in the 80's but I was told that people used to use more environment-friendly packaging like glass bottles. Sometimes I wonder why this massive change to everything-should-be-packed-in-plastic happened.

Its cheaper and easier to ensure sanitary products. We love to be romantic about glass but I don't think as easy of a calculation for the total environmental use. Glass is heavier and more expensive to transport. Glass is harder to shape into sizes that make for efficient transportation, for example Costco square milk jugs. I love to use glass when I can but I don't know if using this glass jar which may not even be…

Glass is recycled infinitely more easily and more widely. Pasabahce sells upcycled and recycled products here, and mark them clearly. Also, we have glass collection bins which has different compartments for clear and colored glass. These are periodically emptied.

Even if they are not recycled, a glass jar is used for more than five years in an household, only by replacing the caps in the process. If we don't need the jars, we give them away to people who need them, adding more usable glass to sneakernet of jars.

Glass is finicky in some forms, and expensive to make it durable during production and transport, but rarely, if ever, ends up in a trash bin.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#159

Post by lm28469 »

trallnag wrote: post #51
notachatbot123 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What a mess. Nothing compared to https://www.google.com/search?q=landfill+plastic&tbm=isch

Plastic trash is supposed to be burned or recycled

> Plastic trash is supposed to be burned

Ah, nothing to worry about then

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#160

Post by wil421 »

pfdietz wrote: post #144
rolisz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also family of four: we fill a 120l garbage bin per week, to the brim, and a 120l compost bin every two weeks (this one maybe is not full, but it stinks by that time) and a ton of "recyclables" (cardboard, paper, metals, plastics).

We have a very small compost bin in the kitchen that is frequently (about once a day) emptied into a garbage can with lid in the garage, which is then infrequently dumped into a compost pile. The particular combination of materials going into the garage compost can (like coffee grounds, citrus peels) gives it a spicy rather than putrid odor when the lid is opened.

I tired to do a compost last year but I live near a stream and tons of small flying insects infested the compost bin. It would never get hot enough to compost, ants moved in after the flies left in the spring. My climate is hot during the summer but even compost started wouldn’t help.

I have lots of kitchen waste, grass waste, and plenty of brown organic matter I can add that’s around my yard. The bugs love it.

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