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How do we package food products sustainably in coming decades? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by j4k3@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I imagine all plastics will be out of the question. I'm wondering about what ways food packaging might become regulated to upcycling in the domestic or even commercial space. Assuming energy remains a $ scarce $ commodity I don't imagine recycling glass will be super practical as a replacement. Do we move to more unpackaged goods and bring our own containers to fill at markets? Do we start running two way logistics chains where a more durable glass container is bought and returned to market? How do we achieve a lower energy state of normal in packaging goods?

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[–] psud@aussie.zone 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

We gave up on reusing glass bottles in large part because they were not sanitary.

We gave up on them because they are less good looking. It's dead easy to sanitise glass. You can do it chemically, thermally, or radiologically (with UV through to gamma rays).

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Your quote ended before this:

Every boomer has stories of finding cigarette butts in their soda and beer. Previous buyers regularly used their empties as ash trays before turning them in for the deposit, and the cleaning process was not nearly as effective as one would hope.

It is certainly easy to sanitize clean glass that you have controlled from mold to filling with product. It is a little harder to reliably sanitize glass that the occasional customer has used for their own purposes.

When a narrow-necked bottle has been used as a smoker's ashtray - or an addict's sharps container - it is not "dead easy" to "sanitize" that bottle. Our cleaning process needs to be able to deal with such "contaminants".

[–] psud@aussie.zone 6 points 7 months ago

It's trivial to automatically recognise and reject contaminated bottles. They differ in appearance and mass

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Both glass and plastic bottles frequently get reused here in germany. Can't say I've ever heard of someone having an unclean on. I don't know where you heard that from but it's clearly outdated or flat out bullshit.