186
submitted 1 year ago by grte@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Mandate the Mason/Bernardin form factors. Plenty of sizes, swappable lids, and afaik an open standard. /nod

That said, aluminum is super cheap to recycle and very light. I think that might be as good if not better. Crank up the deposit on the cans.

[-] nik282000@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

I like aluminum cans as well but I think it is more energy intense to melt them down and re-manufacture them compared to cleaning and refilling glass. It also has to be used to store products that are under pressure, most of a beer can's strength comes from the pressure inside!

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, though aluminum also has the advantage of being orders of magnitude lighter, so you save a lot on fuel for shipping at every stage of the process. Plus a glass bottle can only be used as a bottle: recycled aluminum is more flexible.

So it could easily tilt in favour of aluminum I think. BUt you're right that it's not clear-cut.

[-] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

There used to be a glass plant near the town where I grew up.

The bottles don't just get washed and refilled. They're melted down and recast, just like aluminum. But the process is much less energy intensive.

Aluminum oxide (the natural form of aluminum as it reacts with the atmosphere) just so happens to have an extremely high melting point. Aluminum smelters must use all three of pressure, heat, and electrolysis to get the oxygen to burn off and liquefy the aluminum. Glass and even steel need only heat. I don't know what the final environmental impact is, but the energy input at the point of smelting is much higher for aluminum.

this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
186 points (98.4% liked)

Canada

7230 readers
638 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Related Communities


๐Ÿ Meta


๐Ÿ—บ๏ธ Provinces / Territories


๐Ÿ™๏ธ Cities / Local Communities

Sorted alphabetically by city name.


๐Ÿ’ SportsHockey

Football (NFL): incomplete

Football (CFL): incomplete

Baseball

Basketball

Soccer


๐Ÿ’ป Schools / Universities

Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.


๐Ÿ’ต Finance, Shopping, Sales


๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ Politics


๐Ÿ Social / Culture


Rules

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca


founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS