Aluminium drawback? Why US still uses so many plastic bottles?

LovelyA72@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 162 points –

Thoughts? I am currently trying to avoid using plastic packed drinks as much as possible due to it's limited and finite recycle count

130

You are viewing a single comment

FYI; cans are plastic lined.

TIL. Do you know when that started?

Always. We used steel before then because it wouldn't react with the drink. We always knew aluminum cans would be cheaper, but couldn't figure out how to protect the flavor and carbonation until Coors figured out how to line it with plastic. He shared the process for free with his competition because he knew a recycling program would scale really well.

That's not entirely true. In the early days they used wax to line the cans because steel still leaves a taste in the drink. It just didn't work very well and also caused carbonation issues as the CO2 diffused into the wax.

Hmm. I wonder if this is true for all the various other acidic canned products. I use cans heavily in my cooking, so this is worrisome. Would the old Shackleton cans be wax-lined?

Glass is an option, or course, which is used in home canning.

It's true, but the amount of plastic in the cans is pretty negligible, especially compared to plastic bottles and the aluminum can is still by far the most recyclable beverage container.

Also there are new linings that don't use plastic but natural materials called oleoresinous linings but they're not good for acidic things so they're not very wildly used.

he aluminum can is still by far the most recyclable beverage container.

Wouldn't glass be more recyclable?