In a bizarre twist, plastic bottles have been found to contain alarming levels of microglass.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
394 points (93.8% liked)
science
19734 readers
535 users here now
A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
rule #1: be kind
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
jajaajajajajajajajjjaaj
For the people in the comments who either won't or seemingly can't read the article: The paint on the top of the caps is plastic-based and before they're put on the bottle they're stored in a big jumbled up pile where the paint chips off and coats the caps in tiny flakes. When the cap gets put on the bottle, the flakes on the bottom of the cap get washed off into your drink. Studies show that washing the caps first dramatically reduces the micro-plastic contamination.
I find this article confusing. Can someone explain it in a simple language as if I am stupid or sth
Bottle caps are stored in big bags of some sort before being placed on bottles.
They have sharp edges and they scratch each other's paint as they shift around in the bags.
The scratching produces a fine dust of plastic/paint particles. The dust covers all sides of the bottle caps in the bags.
The caps are placed on the bottles. The dust goes into the liquid inside the bottle. People drink it.
So nothing coupled to the glass but rather the cap having a extra plastic layer on the wet side.
Sounds like we found the issue, now it's just a matter of producers improving the caps
Nah ill just spend $50 to have a Congress member introduce a bill to make regulating microplastics illegal
load more comments
(2 replies)
Only if it doesn’t cut it to record profits
Only if it somehow increases profit. FTFY
Ha! Good one.
load more comments
(1 replies)
No, the paint on the outside.
Yes. So many people are misunderstanding this article... The microplastics are on the inside, in the drink, and they are bits of the paint from the exterior of bottle caps that stuck to the inside of other caps when the caps were all jumbled together in big bags before they were placed on the bottles.
That would be far more intuitive, but it's not that - it's the painted logo on the outside.
Step 1: Invent plastic bottles
Step 2: Pocket the cash
Step 3: Things got bad? Outsource the clean-up to the end user in the form of recycling
Step 4: Increase prices to account for recycling
Step 5: Laugh as the idiots actually recycle your shit
Step 6: Throw the whole shebang in the ocean or in landfills
Step 7: Pocket some more cash
Step 8: Pat yourself on your shoulder. You've done some capitalism.
You forgot the step where they invent a logo that looks almost the same as the recyclable logo and stick it on all plastics but it doesnt mean its recyclable but instead just says what kind of plastic it is.
Lets go back to corks
Corka Cola.
Just pour it from the glass bottle to the plastic bottle. Problem solved
WTF. Guess I'm an android now, because I'm half plastics on the inside.
Title seems misleading.
As the micro plastics were found on the paint outside the bottle cap. It seems complicate that that ended on the drink itself. Unless you are licking the bottle cap it doesn't seem that relevant.
No, the microplastics were found in the content of the bottles. The cap thing is where they come from. As a reply to you explained, the microplastic from the top of a cap is scratched by another cap and ends up on the bottom of yet another cap.
The paint on the caps also had "tiny scratches, invisible to the naked eye, probably due to friction between the caps when there were stored," the agency said in a statement.
This could then "release particles onto the surface of the caps," it added.
Paint scratches off the outside, then sticks to the inside and makes it into the drink.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Wait...we not licking bottle caps anymore?!
I think because there is a helix twist that glass would grind away the plastic every time it’s recapped. Hence why at the end of the article it is urging manufacturers to use air and alcohol to clean the cap before fitting it to the bottle. Additionally using something other than a plastic cap to reseal the bottle when being used. And especially not one with a helix requiring a twist. You can use a wine reseal which requires no twisting
We just need glass caps then
When I was a kid they were made from metal
In a bizarre twist, glass caps have been found to contain alarming levels of microdrink.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Man on the surface this reeks of inside payoffs. I guess the technicality is plastic caps on glass bottles?? Which seems weird and nothing I've ever seen. Unless they're referencing the seal on the inside of some metal caps on glass bottles? Either way, seems suspect. I'd assume that overall drinking from glass is safer, as with plastic on any timeline you're dealing with the plastic breaking down and leaching chemicals and micro plastics into the liquid, which wouldn't be an issue with glass.
Not plastic caps, plastic paint. The printing on bottlecaps is a polymer and it gets scuffed.
Odd. I would have thought that the paint, being on the exterior, wouldn't leak into the beverage contained inside the glass.
But apparently, they found that blowing air over the caps reduced the amount of detected contamination by 60 per cent. So it seems like an easy fix that manufacturers can implement inexpensively (literally just an electric fan)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›