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Comment by SoftTalker | Hacker News Reader

Stainless steel containers are often lined with plastic, since people don't like the metallic taste that the steel imparts.

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In general there is nothing wrong with long-life plastic products. Plastic is a really useful and important material when used appropriately!

It's the insane amount waste and environmental pollution that single-use plastic generates that is the problem.

Exactly. What I always tell vendors when I get a strange look after refusing their plastic bag is that we use it for 5 minutes but it stays in the environment for 1000 years.

They make plastics that biodegrade in a few years. Supposedly even in a landfill they degrade (I've seen this debated, I'm not qualified to figure out who is right). However they are more expensive and so rarely used except when someone wants to make a point about being green.

Nothing wrong unless it is used to store food or water and contains some BPA-like compound (AFAIK it includes most plastic produces nowadays even so called BPA-free).

The BPA replacements are probably just as toxic as BPA but it will take 20 years of science to prove it conclusively enough to get them banned.

^^^^THIS!^^^^ There is early evidence that most BPA and pthlalate replacements may be considerably worse for you than the things they are replacing. (At least, worse in the sense that they are possibly more dangerous as endocrine disruptors and hormone mimics, and also possibly harder to remove from the body...)

Best choice is to insist on glass packaging wherever you can. It's inert and infinitely recyclable.

Do you know if that metallic taste is considered (in-)healthy? I have no clue and actually like that taste and must admit that in the steel for everything department I’m following the trends as well (steel for cooking - no PFAS; steel for drink containers - no plastics).

Stainless steel has nickel and chromium in it which can leach out, but I don't think incredibly tiny amounts have been shown to be bad.

It's harmless. The sensation is electrolytic in origin rather than caused by taste receptor activation; it's like when you put a 9 V battery to your tongue except much less potential and therefore weaker feeling.

Reusable plastic is fine....

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