• froh42@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It works by applied statistics.

    When you littered before - with the old cap - you’d have two pieces of plastic, now they are connected and it’s only one piece.

    I’m only mildy annoyed by the new lids and got used to them, but it’s the bottle cap regulation is one of those that’s purely better for statistics.

    It reduces littering by bottles to around half, just because we count the pieces differently now.

    Maybe we should better just start taxing by the amount of plastic used in food packaging, as a lot of the packages get bigger and bigger just to display the contents more visibility.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It reduces littering by bottles to around half, just because we count the pieces differently now.

      Beyond the statistics, collecting bottles seems easier than collecting bottle caps. Since people can’t stop tossing their trash in the street, at least it makes it easier for people that clean up to get them.

      • arc99@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        In many countries people collect their own bottles because there is a refundable tax on the container. Here in Ireland it’s 15c, i.e. a can of coke might be €1 but you’ll be charged €1.15. So it motivates people to take the empties back to a supermarket and receive a refund chit. It also motivates homeless people to pick up bottles & cans that people toss, so that too.

        • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          That’s an idea, but it requires the incentive to be more than people… let’s call it laziness. I see people drop their trash in front of an empty trashcan on the regular.

          Regarding plastic bottle deposit, a quick search (https://www.statista.com/chart/22963/global-status-of-plastic-bottle-recycling-systems/) around 30 countries had such a system in place, with varying degrees of success, with only 10 US states. That’s not a lot. In France, we also had this for glass bottle. It was discontinued long ago but we’re looking to bring it back. Let’s hope this do motivate people, although I don’t have my hopes up.

        • Druid@lemmy.zip
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          22 hours ago

          I get what you’re trying to say about homeless people, and there are many people reliant on collecting plastic bottles in Germany too, but motivation in that context sounds a tad off imo

          • arc99@lemmy.world
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            16 hours ago

            Annoying? Am I the only one who thinks it’s more convenient? The cap cannot fall, you can open it one handed, you cannot lose the cap…

            I’m not saying its good that homeless people rely on collecting bottles. But the fact they have cash value means they will collect them and feed them back into the system. So less litter and more recycling.

            • Druid@lemmy.zip
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              15 hours ago

              No, I get that. Just the word “motivation” seems off in this context. I’m all for having deposits on plastic bottles and cans - it’s free money (girl math 💅🏻) - I just didn’t like that word in that context