Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Hygiene? You can safely clean glassware with the most aggressive of chemicals, then maybe run it through an autoclave for extra safety.

Funny that people complain about glassware hygiene while chugging phtalate-infused beverages from plastic bottles.



Of course you can, but there is a history:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/penny-lick-ice-cream


You realize that we reuse cutlery, glassware and dishware each time we eat in a restaurant other than KFC, right?

Another example would be beer bottles and marmalade/peanut butter/pickles jars.


Also, hard to take these concerns seriously when glass/plastic bottle deposit swaps are common in, say, Latin/South America.

How often are people getting sick drinking caguamas/garrafones?

The reality seems obvious: single-use plastic is cheapest and cheapest always wins.


Most "aggressive of chemicals" doesn´t sound too good...


Well... not THE most aggressive of chemicals, fluoroantimonic acid (H2F[SbF6]), the acid designed by top chemists to be the best acid that ever forcibly protonated a carbon atom into pentavalent carbonium.

That will dissolve the glass. (It can only be stored in PTFE.) It doesn't even have a pH, as it can't exist in aqueous solution, because it explosively destroys water.

Strong bases, like 50% or higher NaOH, also attack silicate glass.

You can clean glass with less aggressive chemical solutions that can still dissolve all organic materials and salts on the surface, without damaging the glass, and then remove those solutions completely, if the glass geometry permits. Or you can clean it well enough for commerce by inverting the bottle and blowing steam into it, something that would alter the geometry of a polyethylene bottle.

But a glassblowing robot can easily make a completely new bottle, that isn't going to have any unknown contaminants in it. Recycling glass doesn't save enough money to make it good business.


I meant to point out that glass is inert in most conditions, be it chemicals, heat, UV radiation, etc.

Meanwhile, plastic containers are easily damaged by heat or UV light, and contaminate their contents.


Depends, are you the kind of person who considers "this product is not for sale in California" to be a feature or a warning?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: