Yes I am aware that they're somehow supposed to reduce plastic waste because the cap can't get lost ... unless you cut it off, of course.
Yes I am also aware that there are people with disabilities (shaky hands, weak grip, etc.) who are thankful for these and actually like the design. Good for them, and I mean that in a non-sarcastic way.
But personally, I hate these things with all the "first world problems" rage I can muster and go out of my way to rip / cut / twist them off on every single bottle I buy. I don't like having the bottle cap directly in my face while drinking, or slipping in the way of the flow whenever I just want to pour milk, and on more than one occasion, I've actually cut my finger OR lip on these little sh*ts (not the same type as in the picture, but baldy-made longer "bands" that leave little plastic spikes on the cap and/or band).
No idea whether I should post this in the "unpopular opinion" section instead or if other people think the same, but to me, "mildly infuriating" describes them perfectly.
Caps attached to the bottles is very important to the recycling industry, so they can be more cheaply and efficiently shipped to China and thrown into the sea.
This generalization is a problem. Assessing the whole life cycle, the carbon footprint of glass bottles is problematic and plastics is a viable alternative.
You have to consider the significantly higher weight of glass increasing carbon emissions from transportation.
While plastics bottles can only be reused about half as often as glass bottles, their production is far more energy-efficient (glass production is done at temps of 1400-1600 °C or 2500-3000 °F while plastics use temperatures from 160-300 °C or 320-600 °F) which also reduces carbon footprint in basically every country.
Of course recycling has to be taken seriously and properly organized to prevent plastics just ending up in nature. But we have to balance the micro-plastics problem against climate change. We need to solve both.
It used to be done a lot more before and some places still do it in Europe. You return the glass bottle intact, they reuse it as is. Only carbon spent is in transporting it.
You can rotate the bottle before taking a sip to position it such that the cap doesn't hit your face. You can also pour liquid out of the bottle without having it run into the cap using the same rotation technique before pouring.
I had quite some beef with the tethered caps in the beginning when they didn't latch properly, but have since gotten used to them. That said:
Cap on top -> Funny hat for nose!
Cap on bottom -> Beard gets to take a moist nap.
Cap on sides -> Mustache also gets to take a sip!
Obviously not much of a problem. I'd need to clean my facial hair either way if eating ice cream or other messy foods, but cap rotation might not be effective if your "face" sticks out 1-2cm from your mouth.
One could also attempt to rotate the cap in a way to achieve quantum tunneling, but I don't feel that I've achieved that level of "tethered cap proficiency" yet.
I honestly like them. Those that "stay open", of course... They just stay out of the way, never get lost, and works pretty nice.
At first I disliked them, but quickly found out they are actually... Very practical. Even not considering the "green" twist, why didn't we adopted them before?
They should make it so the cap doesn't come off at all, so you have to buy a glass bottle with a metal cap that are both recyclable and won't give you erectile disfunction.
Guess I've gotten used to them. At the beginning I'd just rip the cap off anyways, but now somehow managing though I do buy this sorta bottles rather rarely nowadays.
ANYWAYS I don't understand why so many products come in plastic bottles, or carton box with a fucking plastic cap. Aluminum cans are great, cartons are great, glass bottles are great. Why plastic???
I've also just given in but I gotta say: what the heck is wrong with people that they can recycle the bottles but somehow throw the caps anywhere in nature? How long do you leave your brain in the microwave each day before that behaviour becomes normal? People suck.
They're also in Germany now, as mandated in every EU country, but I don't have to deal with them because there's also a heavy culture of reusable glass bottles (Mehrweg Flaschen) distributed in standard reusable crates. Everything has a deposit so you always bring them back when refilling.
I don't mind them either but get yourself cheap cable pliers and cut the tether when you need to, or pour into a cup instead of drinking from the bottle.
Maybe they make them better here in Denmark. Plus we have "Pant" where you pay more for the bottles but get money back when you return them so it's a "belt and braces" approach I guess!
The place I lived before this would only recycle the bottle, not the cap… made this mildly infuriating as I had to do extra work every time I wanted to recycle them. Glad I can just toss the whole thing in the recycle bin now.
The bottle itself is usually made of PET which is very recyclable. The cap is made of polypropylene for its strength to prevent the bottle from leaking.
You cannot recycle PET and PP together - you need pure resin for production. So this captive closure actually hinders recycling.
Personally, I've never seen many caps lying around without their bottle and think the EU solved a non-existent issue.
Normally/averagely abled people - how is any configuration of the cap an issue?
To even think about it takes more energy than any obvious solution (like holding the bonded cap whilst drinking or not ripping it off the seal ring in the non-bonded versions).
Is it just because we are old and any change is annoying af?
The issue I had with them at first was that I thought you had to rip it off halfway, then it was annoying as hell, but if you just unscrew it and fold it open untill it locks open it works great!
To close you just have to pull it up slightly to get it over the opening and then srew it closed
I pick up street litter, and having picked up thousands of pounds, I have never felt that loose caps are a problem, let alone one that requires such a solution. The number of littered bottles, with or without a cap, is greater than the number of loose caps, and the amount of plastic in every bottle dwarfs the plastic in a cap. Fixing the cap to the bottle will do nothing to improve the recycling rate of plastic if entire bottles are already tossed anyway.
I consider the idea of cap tethers as adversarial memetic warfare thrust upon us for some unknown ulterior purpose, possibly to make us hate the very idea of environmental consciousness. Same as paper straws. I like plastic bag bans though.
As far as picking litter is concerned, I personally prefer finding bottles without a cap. At least those are empty, all liquid having evaporated after the bottle has spent several months in the bushes. The capped bottles are often half-full and are just nasty. (Who even pays for a bottle of drink and not drinks half of it anyway?)
The number of littered bottles, with or without a cap, is greater than the number of loose caps,
That smells like survivorship bias. Your dataset is skewed by loose caps being way harder to find due to being smaller. It stands to reason that all those bottles without a cap you find will have also had their cap littered in the vast majority of cases.
my dad is disabled. had a stroke, shaky hands & stuff forever. he fuken h8's these new caps. i personally don't care much, unless i'm drinking yoghurt out of a bottle.
This is one of the dumbest things I've seen. What even is the point? This is just so dumb. Maybe you could break off the cap?
If you are worried about environmental impact ts they could just make them out of aluminum. We already have aluminum cans. Adding more plastic to the bottle will just create more waste.
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