this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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For example, Britain's national mapping organisation's brand is associated in our national consciousness with going to a small shop in a quaint village to get a map showing how to walk up a mountain. It's called Ordnance Survey. If that sounds like Artillery Research to you, that's because the project started because the king wanted to know how to accurately bomb Scotland.

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[โ€“] tetris11@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Water. Fresh drinking water straight from the tap.

And yet I'm seeing lots of people in the UK start to buy bottled water. Worse: canned water.

The shittification of public services in favour of private products is a creep I'm not paying enough attention to

[โ€“] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I agree with the overall sentiment; but there is no way in hell that canned water is worse than plastic bottles.

Aluminium is infinitely more/easily recyclable than plastic, and has a much lower negative impact on the environment.

But to reiterate, filling up your own bottle from the tap is preferred - but if you have to buy water in a container: can > bottle

[โ€“] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not really the metal that's bad, but the coating on the inside of the metal (in contact with your food/water), that raises concerns.

Glass is best, but food/water in glass containers are often considerably more expensive.

[โ€“] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I am aware; but when the options are an entirely plastic container (clear, and readily able to oxidise and leech microplastics when exposed to light over long periods of time) versus a lined metal can (which is at least opaque) - cans are remain the lesser of two evils.

[โ€“] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I don't disagree at all. I wish we had more options.

More glass with compatibility with mason jar lids would be a win for everyone. You can recycle 5them if you want, reuse them easily, and they can remain in circulation for a very long time.

The only caveat with glass is that you have too many idiots breaking them on sidewalks, bike lanes, and parks.

[โ€“] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Glass is also quite heavy, increasing logistics costs for transport - but in an ideal world where everything runs off renewable energy sources and stupid people didnโ€™t ruin things for the rest of us - glass would indeed be the ideal medium.

[โ€“] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 points 13 hours ago

But glass is easy to sterilize at the point of purchase and refilled. There are "zero waste" stores that do something like this already, so there's nothing to bring in other than bulk product (instead of 100 cans or bottles).

Doesn't work everywhere in our current, high-profit, low-care business models.

[โ€“] tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I agree that metal is better than plastic, but it feels like they're trying to categorise water with soda as a commodity

[โ€“] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 1 day ago

The thing about it is aluminum cans leach into their contents, especially if left open. Aluminum isn't particularly harmful in that amount but it's something you can taste, particularly with acidic contents. Not sure how much water suffers from this, but if it comes through in things with flavour, I'm sure it would come through in water, which is supposed to be flavourless, even if it's not usually very acidic.