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Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

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Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#21

Post by 4gotunameagain »

obmelvin wrote: post #6
throw1231312 wrote: post #2

> Heinz has taken a major step forward for sustainable packaging with the introduction of .... > The new cap's uniform composition of polypropylene (PP) simplifies recycling and ... > Currently only about 3% of PP products are being recycled in the United States.

Until someone develops some sort of multi-spectral imaging that can reliably sort plastic based on it's composition there's little hope of recycling plastic. And then you still need different enzymes that can break down different compositions. It's sad, but realistically almost all plastic one disposes of needs to go in the trash can rather than recycling. You can't even rely on dedicated collection - https://abcnews…

How does Germany recycle 60% of its plastic waste?

There is obviously hope, just not enough incentive because it costs.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#22

Post by darreninthenet »

petepete wrote: post #8
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.

In the 80s in the UK we had milk delivered every morning in glass bottles by a huge fleet of electric vehicles. The empty bottles were left out, collected by the milkman, sterilised and reused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float

There are still companies doing this, check out Milk and More

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#23

Post by Symbiote »

obmelvin wrote: post #6
throw1231312 wrote: post #2

> Heinz has taken a major step forward for sustainable packaging with the introduction of .... > The new cap's uniform composition of polypropylene (PP) simplifies recycling and ... > Currently only about 3% of PP products are being recycled in the United States.

Until someone develops some sort of multi-spectral imaging that can reliably sort plastic based on it's composition there's little hope of recycling plastic. And then you still need different enzymes that can break down different compositions. It's sad, but realistically almost all plastic one disposes of needs to go in the trash can rather than recycling. You can't even rely on dedicated collection - https://abcnews…

Copenhagen recycles 70% of collected plastic, with the rest incinerated (used for heating homes, I think).

Almost all plastic packaging is collected, including wrappers and trays.

https://affald.kk.dk/affaldsfraktion/saadan-sorterer-du-plas... (in Danish)

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#24

Post by lukan »

obmelvin wrote: post #6
throw1231312 wrote: post #2

> Heinz has taken a major step forward for sustainable packaging with the introduction of .... > The new cap's uniform composition of polypropylene (PP) simplifies recycling and ... > Currently only about 3% of PP products are being recycled in the United States.

Until someone develops some sort of multi-spectral imaging that can reliably sort plastic based on it's composition there's little hope of recycling plastic. And then you still need different enzymes that can break down different compositions. It's sad, but realistically almost all plastic one disposes of needs to go in the trash can rather than recycling. You can't even rely on dedicated collection - https://abcnews…

I would argue burning it (and maybe capture the generated CO2) is the only recycling making any sense with the plastic garbage we have. And then stop using it for everything and start classifying/labeling the plastics where we neee them, so they can be sorted automatically later so then you can recycle them.

Here in germany some sort of plastic recycling actually works, because there is a deposit fee on all plastic bottles - you bring them back to the supermarket to get it back - and then there is one source of the same plastic, that does get used for new products.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#25

Post by kostko »

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.

Your lifestyle does not generate garbage. Companies that sell non recyclables and non compostsbles generate garbage. Why hasnt cocacola replaced their plastics with something compostable? There are new inventions for replacing plastics out each day, I wonder where those inventions end up.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#26

Post by throw1231312 »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #21
obmelvin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until someone develops some sort of multi-spectral imaging that can reliably sort plastic based on it's composition there's little hope of recycling plastic. And then you still need different enzymes that can break down different compositions. It's sad, but realistically almost all plastic one disposes of needs to go in the trash can rather than recycling. You can't even rely on dedicated collection - https://abcnews…

How does Germany recycle 60% of its plastic waste? There is obviously hope, just not enough incentive because it costs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container-deposit_legislation

I can't even begin to imagine the discourse (and "experts" brought on-air at Fox News) that would take place if such legislation was proposed in the US.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#27

Post by defrost »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #21
obmelvin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until someone develops some sort of multi-spectral imaging that can reliably sort plastic based on it's composition there's little hope of recycling plastic. And then you still need different enzymes that can break down different compositions. It's sad, but realistically almost all plastic one disposes of needs to go in the trash can rather than recycling. You can't even rely on dedicated collection - https://abcnews…

How does Germany recycle 60% of its plastic waste? There is obviously hope, just not enough incentive because it costs.

Step one: virtually eliminate uneccesary plastic so there's far less waste and ideally most is of the type that can be recycled.

I've not been in Germany for a long while, but I was impressed when last there by a near complete absence of excess packaging, nails in big boxes sold by weight rather than pre sorted into tiny plastic packets, etc.

No idea if they kept that up.

Addendum: Apparently so, and they have 5 types of household bins for seperating waste: https://greenendeavour.com.au/is-germanys-waste-management-s...

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#28

Post by frereubu »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #21
obmelvin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until someone develops some sort of multi-spectral imaging that can reliably sort plastic based on it's composition there's little hope of recycling plastic. And then you still need different enzymes that can break down different compositions. It's sad, but realistically almost all plastic one disposes of needs to go in the trash can rather than recycling. You can't even rely on dedicated collection - https://abcnews…

How does Germany recycle 60% of its plastic waste? There is obviously hope, just not enough incentive because it costs.

Do you have a source for that? I'd be interested to read more, because there are similar statistics that only count the percentage collected, not the percentage actually recycled. e.g. there's quite a bit of "mixed" recycling in the UK, which firms count as "being recycled", but when they get to the recycling plant if there's "too much" contamination (e.g. food, non-recyclable plastic etc.) then it's sent to the incinerator.

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#29

Post by huytersd »

petepete wrote: post #8
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.

In the 80s in the UK we had milk delivered every morning in glass bottles by a huge fleet of electric vehicles. The empty bottles were left out, collected by the milkman, sterilised and reused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float

When my parents were kids in Asia they used to get all their club soda delivered in cartons in glass bottles that had a little glass ball in it to hold in the carbonation. You then pushed the glass ball down to open it up. They would then sterilize and reuse those and the glass ball would self seal once carbonated again.

What a really nice, fully reusable bottle with no waste at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codd-neck_bottle?wprov=sfti1

Re: Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

#30

Post by kolektiv »

darreninthenet wrote: post #22
petepete wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 80s in the UK we had milk delivered every morning in glass bottles by a huge fleet of electric vehicles. The empty bottles were left out, collected by the milkman, sterilised and reused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float

There are still companies doing this, check out Milk and More

I just had a look at this (I'd been meaning to for a while, I miss the milkman leaving milk and other bits from my childhood). The milk is literally 4x the price I would pay in the supermarket. It's a lovely idea, but in this economic climate, most people are more price-conscious than that...
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