
Carlsberg glues beer cans together as it abandons plastic rings - agotterer
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/07/carlsberg-glues-beer-cans-together-becoming-first-brewery-abandon/
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sebazzz
As someone from the Netherlands, I find it surprising these plastic rings
still exist. We don't have it for many years and use well-recycable cardboard.

~~~
bramblerose
For trays, yes, but 6-packs are shrinkwrapped in plastic:
[https://i.imgur.com/VmHhQph.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/VmHhQph.jpg)

~~~
Retric
The Shrink wrapping is far less harmful for wildlife. It's a question of what
forces are being applied and the lifetime of the material, not the amount of
material.

~~~
Faaak
Are there any serious studies that show that shrinkwrap is far less harmful
than plastic rings ?

~~~
Retric
Yes. “One study by International Coastal Cleanups and used at Clemson
University indicates that about 5% (10 instances in 443) of trapped wildlife
was entangled in plastic six rings.”

Those rings are vastly less than 5% of plastic production.

PS: Recycling streams are not really relevant for wildlife as a trash dump is
also generally effective. The issue is they are often used outdoors and the
plastic fails to enter the trash stream.

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agurk
Here in Denmark I haven't seen cans joined together using plastic rings -
Carlsberg or any other. The common format for six cans to be plastic wrapped
as a whole unit.

As there's a deposit on cans they're normally collected, but any packing might
be left behind. These glued cans will both save on plastic waste and reduce
litter.

~~~
decko
It's being trialed in England so far. in Denmark don't they still just use the
paper wrapping. Isn't that just as good?

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ravenstine
Why not just put them in cardboard boxes like with sodas?

~~~
petecooper
In the UK, beer sold in larger quantities than a 4-pack or 6-pack tends to be
fully boxed minus the plastic rings.

~~~
perl4ever
I think that is the case in the US too. And beer bottles are normally in
cardboard carriers too.

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wodenokoto
The little mermaid statue they show, was it actually placed next to the little
mermaid? I never heard anything about a second statue, and here in Denmark,
anything that involves the little mermaid is usually big news.

~~~
elbrownos
Another article says "Alice Eriksen, the granddaughter of the Little Mermaid’s
original sculptor, Edvard Eriksen, revealed the installation to the public
today.

The mermaid “canstruction” will be on display to the public in the Carlsberg
Visitor Centre in Copenhagen from Friday 7 September 2018." [https://ciwm-
journal.co.uk/carlsberg-makes-waves-to-reduce-p...](https://ciwm-
journal.co.uk/carlsberg-makes-waves-to-reduce-plastic-waste/)

~~~
wodenokoto
That clears up my question: It wasn't exhibited next to the original mermaid,
which is why there was no commotion about it in local or national news.

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vmlinuz
Maybe I am just too old, but I'm quite surprised to see no mention here of the
Burns Omni-net from the Simpsons episode The Old Man and the Lisa[1] - "It
sweeps the sea clean"

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Lisa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Lisa)

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wrycoder
Anything would be better than the hard plastic rings I'm finding on East Coast
craft beer lately. I've apparently not discovered the trick to separate them.
I'm always afraid I'm going to tear a fingernail when it lets go.

~~~
rtkwe
You're not supposed to pry them off at all. You just sort of pull and rotate
the can keeping a hand on the rest. There's a bit of a trick but they're not
that bad but it shouldn't involve your fingernails at all.

[https://youtu.be/1u1q4FRruEc?t=37](https://youtu.be/1u1q4FRruEc?t=37)

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jerrysievert
do these have handles on top to help carry? it's one of the nice things for
6-packs, whether with plastic rings, plastic tops, or sold in cardboard.

that said, I think I still prefer crowlers over normal cans at this point.

~~~
wodenokoto
I checked the first 3 google results for crowler, and they all tell me it's
better than growlers and show be pictures of large cans of beer.

So, what is a crowler, and how is it different from a can of beer?

~~~
jerrysievert
It’s a large can of beer.

Most places that sell crowlers pour fresh draft in, and can on site. It
typically means either very fresh beer (the Crowler I picked up yesterday was
from a very fresh beer kegged a few days ago) or specialty beers that won’t
get distributed in a way that normal consumers can get it.

A beer correctly crowled will last for quite a while (months) if stored
correctly.

edited to add: a crowled beer is filled all the way to the top, sometimes
purged with co2, which is what helps reduce oxidation - compared to a growler,
which usually has an air gap.

~~~
xyzzy123
Oh wow. There is an old phrase “rush the growler” in English and I wonder if
this word “crowler” is related.

EDIT: Ok yeah, I see it’s “can growler”.

~~~
GordonS
"growler" in the UK means something _very_ different these days!

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kgwxd
Can the cans still be recycled without having to remove the glue somehow?

~~~
mrob
Most cans are already lined with epoxy, so I don't think a little more glue
will be a problem.

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RobLach
Modern plastic rings are bio-degradable thou...

~~~
Freak_NL
That only helps if the plastic actually get recycled. Biodegradable plastics
don't degrade fast enough not to be detrimental to wildlife.

> thou...

I think you mean 'though'.

~~~
RobLach
Maybe. I don’t believe anyone has really measured it. They’ve been on the
market since the early 90’s and I don’t think anyone uses non-degradable ones
anymore.

[http://www.hicone.com/index.php?id=39](http://www.hicone.com/index.php?id=39)
says they can degrade as quickly as a month but they don’t mention the upper
bound.

(I did mean though.)

~~~
rtkwe
The problem is those require UV light to break down which means a) they won't
break down in land fills and b) won't break down super well in water because
it blocks UV light pretty well. Also it's just breaking down into smaller bits
of plastic so it's not solving another issue with is the increasing amount of
plastic in the ocean, those small pieces can still cause trouble for wildlife
as they eat it.

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postpawl
Has anyone used this yet? Do the cans get unstuck too easily?

~~~
ccsalvesen
tldr: nope.

The've arrived in the shops in Norway. One row of three cans are glued at both
bottom and top. The two rows are glued only at the bottom. The handle keeps
the rows securely together. The glue is some sort of hot glue used in liberal
amounts. If anything, the boxes are harder than before to get loose.

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awiesenhofer
Or, you know ... use cardboard and bottles.

~~~
Aloha
cans are cheaper and easier to recycle, as well as being lighter to transport

~~~
TillE
Cans are lighter, but glass bottles are far better for recycling. They can be
simply washed out and reused many many times before you need to melt them
down.

~~~
mdnormy
And taste better.

But for business its all about cost. Cheaper material, easier to control in
manufacturing line, cheaper to move around.

Can it is.

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i88y6
I'm skeptical that that many of them are getting into the ocean. I wonder if
it would be more effective to put a UUID on them and tell the public that if
one of these is found in the ocean a full investigation will be launched. Not
just for reprisal, but to develop "user stories" about how this shit gets into
the ocean. If they determine that you dumped it , then you get fined to pay
for 10^5 lbs of trash to be removed from the sea. If there's even a little FUD
of getting caught (via UUID) I think it would result in a huge reduction in
littering.

~~~
BurningFrog
The plastic in the oceans is overwhelmingly from the unsorted trash of east
Asia. Europe and North America contribute very small amounts.

[https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/22/earth-day-and-the-
plastic...](https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/22/earth-day-and-the-plastics-
pollution-pro)

~~~
latchkey
Living in Vietnam, I concur. It is literally the culture to throw stuff
everywhere and not care about it. Someone else will pick it up. Except someone
else doesn't and there is no way deal with that since there is so much trash.

Outside my apartment, there is a river. It used to be more of an open sewer.
Eventually the government started sending a barge with two guys on it down the
river multiple times a day to pick up the trash. The barge gets maybe about 5%
of the trash it passes since the river is much wider than the barge. Because
there is a daily tide, all the water in the river flows out to the larger
Saigon river... which heads to the oceans.

I wish I could post pictures here easily... I have lots of them. It is
everywhere in this country. It is sad.

~~~
hazza1
When in India I was buying a drink and asked the shopkeeper if he could throw
away my old can, he literally threw it out the window.

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amag
Meanwhile in the plastic rings factory...

Pointy-haired boss: "Carlsberg just cancelled the order for the 10 million
plastic rings we produced, they're gonna glue the cans together instead!"

Mid-level manager: "Oh, that's bad. What should we now do with all the rings?"

Pointy-haired boss: "This sucks! Might as well dump them in the ocean!"

Mid-level manager: "Ok!"

~~~
acct1771
Why are they pointy-haired..?

~~~
roghummal
"The Pointy-haired Boss (often abbreviated to just PHB or "The Boss") is
Dilbert's boss in the Dilbert comic strip."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointy-
haired_Boss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointy-haired_Boss)

