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Comment by ccc3 | Hacker News Reader

This is a pessimistic, anti-progress perspective. As you point out, there are plenty of other problems in the recycling chain. But this is a small step in the right direction. And the investment here is pretty small too. $1.2m probably covered a handful of engineers for around a year plus the cost of tooling. Given that Heinz sells a lot of ketchup, I would expect that the impact/dollar here is pretty high.

Also, I’d bet that the new cap is cheaper than the old one. I’m sure that helped justify the investment to management. Kudos to the engineers who made this happen for finding a solution that is palatable to management and also makes the packaging more sustainable.

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No.

This is what the bargaining stage of grief looks like.

We - all of us - want to believe that life can continue on as it has if we just take the right special steps in our kitchen.

In fact, the rituals of modern consumers straining to be “sustainable” is reminiscent of a rain dance - and about as effective.

:) Funny rhetoric, but there's no fact or argument there.

The application of ridicule and dimissal to everything associated with progressivism is a common pattern these days. Effectively, it's reactionary; the reactionaries have done a great job at spreading their messaging and demonizing their perceived enemies, and at the same time making people argue for their own powerlessness.

Demonization, despair (powerlessness), and ridicule are tools for people whose agenda loses on the merits.

My bet is that it is just cheaper to make without the silicone and as an added bonus it’s more recyclable.

It’s just cost savings that can be greenwashed.

But is that so bad? Assuming it works about as well, it's likely more resource efficient to make in general, too.

But you don't know that. All the previous equipment obsoloeted and tosssed somewhere. All the previous workers retrained or fired. It could be far worse. Trusting plastic makers to tell you the truth about plastic recycling is like trusting WWE to tell you the truth about sport.

And you're assuming they weren't redesigning it anyways.

Nice! It's cheaper and less bad? Seems like a win/win.

Very tiny wins though, so don't let them squeak out of anything else because they already did "something".

My bet is that jurisdictions with Extended Producer Responsibility laws were going to charge them money to clear up their mess and it became a sensible business decision to make this change to save them money.

It isn't anti-progress. It's identifying a lack of it. A step in the right direction would be developments that either definitely lead to more recycling in practice, or a reduction in materials used.

Yeah -- it's sort of like those people who complain about the plastic lining on compostable coffee cups making them pointless.

Like if a 100% plastic and a 1% plastic end up in a landfill or elsewhere the 1% coffee cup is just going to two orders of magnitude less damage than the pure plastic one, we can't let perfect be the enemy of good but OP does have a point about the oil lobby push but that is a separate but related issue.

nah, it's all a scam and that they can get you back into the scam so easily with a little bit of marketing is a serious indictment of our education system and the ability of our population to reason effectively.

> But this is a small step in the right direction.

You know what, you're right. Here, one second...

Ok, I scooted a half foot in the direction of the peak of Everest.

Man, it's exhausting living a life of adventure like I do. At this point, I wager I must be half Sherpa.

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