• mastefetri@infosec.pub
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      11 months ago

      This is why we need a plastic tax. If it was even slightly more expensive to use plastic they would switch back to metal or glass in a heartbeat.

    • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      toothpaste used to come in metal tubes too. not even long ago. it’s like they saw everyone else was polluting and they wanted in too smh

      • Mamertine@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Not only that, they advertised recycling to push public opinion that it was okay to switch to plastic, because plastic is recyclable. But they didn’t tell us, it’s never going to be economicaly viable to recycle plastic toothpaste tubes.

        • rigatti@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s not economically viable and you can only make lesser quality plastic out of it.

      • argh_another_username@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Nivea Cream used to come in aluminum cans, then they changed to plastic. Recently they announced that they would come back to aluminum. We can still buy in plastic, though. I think it depends on the market.

      • yacht_boy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, but those metal tubes were awful. I have been brushing my teeth with Tom’s of Maine for decades, and I remember how much I hated those metal tubes. They always split open weeks before the tube was empty and then they’d leak and make a mess and I inevitably wasted a lot of product. When Tom finally sold to whatever corp and they switched over to the plastic tubes that don’t leak and let me use all the toothpaste I paid for, I danced a little jig.

        • oatscoop@midwest.social
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          11 months ago

          Your comment made me have a flashback to my dad getting irritated at me for squeezing the middle of the toothpaste tube.

          You’re only supposed to squeeze the far end of a metal tube – pushing product from the very end to the opening. Then as it gets empty you fold/roll up the flat bit at the end. You can even even buy “wringers” designed to assist with that.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      But it’s not that simple. Back then no one recycled the can and all too many wouldn’t now. The can itself was heavier and not as effective. Plastic truly is a wonder material for packaging / it does a better job of keeping things fresh, is more convenient, and saving that weight, saving the energy going into making a can, saving the weight for shipping, is all a benefit of a plastic. We don’t have anything that works nearly as well

      We all need to face the idea that convenience items like pudding probably shouldn’t be sold at all, especially with how easy instant pudding is

      • yacht_boy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The group think around here is so crazy. Should we be using less single use plastic, especially the thin films? Absolutely. But the environmental impacts of mining all that metal and making all that glass to replace plastic with, plus the added energy for transporting the heavier packages and the cost of increased spoilage and product lost to dented cans and broken bottles, dwarfs the negative impact of the plastic replacements.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Also, I haven’t seen enough research on where environmental plastic comes from. While they’re are some benefits to just using less plastics, less packaging where we can, it would be much better to focus on the larger sources

          Realistically what I’ve seen for larger sources of microplastics is:

          • industrial waste
          • tire dust
          • clothing

          I already have a lint trap on my washer outlet and see there are a few filters meant to trap much of the manmade fibers that come off in the wash, to dispose of in the trash rather than back into the environment with treated wastewater. I have no idea whether that would actually be helpful but the filters aren’t that expensive, and it’s one of the few options under my control.

          Increased standards on industrial waste cleanup are always a good idea. However a lot of this may be in undeveloped countries

          If laundry is a significant source of micro plastics in the environment, we need to figure that out and add filters or something

          We really really need to figure out something with tire dust, since it will continue to get worse as more people can afford personal transportation. I did read one article about filtering runoff near roads making a big difference but it was light on details and I’ve only seen something like that once

          • yacht_boy@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I actually work in the wastewater industry and from what I’m reading, a properly functioning sewage treatment plant already captures a very high proportion of microplastics. This widely cited study noted above 98% removal efficiency at one plant.

            We’re already at approaching 2 log (99%) removal without actually trying to. It doesn’t seem improbable to me that with a few relatively modest tweaks to the system we could get 3 log removal (99.9%). Getting to 4 or 5 log removal is likely where things will get really expensive and challenging. But for now, a 2-3 log removal is probably good enough to focus on other sources like tire fragments/dust that typically pass directly to receiving waters with no treatment at all.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Good to know, thanks. While I don’t know how my system does with this , the treatment facility is new-ish and was supposed to be state of the art.

              But then we’re back to needing to know more about the sources of environmental microplastics, then figure out how to cut them

      • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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        11 months ago

        I wonder how well PLA would work for food storage. I learned it’s made with beets and can break down very quickly.

  • Salvo@aussie.zone
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    11 months ago

    Years ago, after a family camping trip, we stopped at a café for Lunch on our way home. My father, my Brother and I all saw Sticky Date Pudding on the menu and decided to order it as desert.

    It was the most amazing Sticky Date Pudding we had ever had, it was the right balance of moist and dry, the caramel sauce was just the right balance of sweet, salt and tart without being decadent and the date was just the right consistency, not rubbery but with just the right consistency.

    We asked the waiter about it and they told the chef. The chef came out to give us the recipe and pulled out a Tinned Pudding. All he had done was cracked the tin, poured it out and put a scoop of vanilla gelato on the side.

  • UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    As a UK resident, I only know about these because Bill and Ted used some to repair the phone booth time machine.

  • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    You unlocked a core childhood memory. It must have been sometime around the late 1980s pudding started being sold in plastic containers and I forgot they had ever been in cans.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Ohhhh. Fruit cocktail.

        Also, in the army it was the pouches of fruit salad or pears. If you lucked out and got that in your box, you could trade for a lot to the poor sap who got cherry pie and “lung in a bag” isn’t doing it for them.

      • S_204@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I just popped open a can of fruit cocktail for the kids yesterday. It’s a 350ml can, not a single serve. We portion into mini mason jars.

    • pseudo@jlai.lu
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      11 months ago

      Oh ! I misunderstood the post. I thought it was about powdered pudding being most variety in the stores. There is still canned pudding and fruit coktail in France but also some in plastic.

    • s_s@lemmy.one
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      11 months ago

      When you don’t have fresh fruits for the canning line, you can keep the lines busy with another product you mix up from a shelf stable powder…pudding.

  • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Honestly probably better than the plastic cups they come in now. At least metal cans are actually recyclable (yes I know they still have a layer of plastic on the inside, but much less than a plastic container).

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Jeez. I’m surrounded by kids. That’s the way we ate pudding in the 80s. And we liked it that way!

    You don’t get that reference either, do you?

    Sigh.