Removing collars from PET bottles

[jennyss]

A few weeks ago I asked for, and got some very good advice  from Coopers Community members about if, and how, and when to remove the collars from the lids of PET beer bottles.  Now I'm getting ready to bottle my third brew, another Coopers Australian Pale Ale. I've decided to conduct a 'controlled experiment'. I've removed the collars from 15 used bottles, and will leave the collars on another 15.  At my request the Man of the House (MOTH) went into the garage and came out with garden snips. I have them a good clean and bleach dip, and they worked really well. Hope I'm not playing with fire!

[ozdevil]

36 minutes ago, jennyss said:

A few weeks ago I asked for, and got some very good advice  from Coopers Community members about if, and how, and when to remove the collars from the lids of PET beer bottles.  Now I'm getting ready to bottle my third brew, another Coopers Australian Pale Ale. I've decided to conduct a 'controlled experiment'. I've removed the collars from 15 used bottles, and will leave the collars on another 15.  At my request the Man of the House (MOTH) went into the garage and came out with garden snips. I have them a good clean and bleach dip, and they worked really well. Hope I'm not playing with fire!

no ya not playing with fire , your playing with beer 

that is what most of us do and provide you get a good seal with the collars off your going to be drinking beer

[Classic Brewing Co]

37 minutes ago, jennyss said:

A few weeks ago I asked for, and got some very good advice  from Coopers Community members about if, and how, and when to remove the collars from the lids of PET beer bottles.  Now I'm getting ready to bottle my third brew, another Coopers Australian Pale Ale. I've decided to conduct a 'controlled experiment'. I've removed the collars from 15 used bottles, and will leave the collars on another 15.  At my request the Man of the House (MOTH) went into the garage and came out with garden snips. I have them a good clean and bleach dip, and they worked really well. Hope I'm not playing with fire!

That will be fine @jennyss you have done it right, IMO it pays to remove the collars after first use of each new bottle/cap, I find it seals better & they are no use for them anyway.

[Classic Brewing Co]

39 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

That will be fine @jennyss you have done it right, IMO it pays to remove the collars after first use of each new bottle/cap, I find it seals better & they are no use for them anyway.

Correction: Melling Spistake 

I find it seals better & they are of no use anyway.

[Aussiekraut]

5 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Correction: Melling Spistake 

I find it seals better & they are of no use anyway.

Are we a little lysdexic today? As long as you don't go to church and pray to dog and wait for Satan to come at xmas time, all is good  

[Aussiekraut]

Dare I say I always left the collars on the bottles? Why? Because I am a lazy sod, that's why  Only when I replaced a cap here and there, did I cut the old collar of but I still have more than 3 year old bottles with the original collar attached. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

4 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Dare I say I always left the collars on the bottles? Why? Because I am a lazy sod, that's why  Only when I replaced a cap here and there, did I cut the old collar of but I still have more than 3 year old bottles with the original collar attached. 

Yeah it is up to what ever you want to do, over the years I have ended up with PET bottles from Coopers/Mangrove Jacks/Morgan's etc & they are not all exactly the same, some are 750ml as opposed to 740ml also with some of them the top of the bottle tapers a little & the colours of the bottles vary & have different coloured tops.

That's what I do so everyone has a choice to do whatever they want.

[Malter White]

Good on you, @jennyss. Doing some R&D already. Nice!
While hygiene is of utmost importance to brewing, the garden snips won't be touching anything that your beer comes into contact with so you should right as rain.

[terminal2k]

I always take the collars off before using the lids

[jackgym]

17 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Are we a little lysdexic today? As long as you don't go to church and pray to dog and wait for Satan to come at xmas time, all is good  

A dyslexic man walked into a bra.

[Marvin]

I always removed those collars when I used plastic bottles but I don't think it made any difference to tightening the cap.  I suppose if you tighten the cap and the collar isn't loose enough to spin around there may be an issue, but I don't think this happens.  They are though much like unsanitary foreskins, so I remove them for religious reasons.

[Cee]

Snip 'em and cut 'em into at least 2 seperate pieces so the rings don't snag birds and other creatures once they reach the environment

The first time of use the rings give that authentic, "Crackin' a beer" kind of feeling but after that, I end up snipping them off. Less clutter to gather bacteria, for one thing. I think it also looks better to not have old rings on bottles - if aesthetics like that matter to you. 

[Spursman]

On 4/5/2022 at 11:33 AM, jackgym said:

A dyslexic man walked into a bra.

I tripped over on my wife's bra this morning.

Obviously it was a booby trap.

[Tone boy]

14 minutes ago, Spursman said:

I tripped over on my wife's bra this morning.

Obviously it was a booby trap.

[Cult Of One]

On 6/17/2022 at 6:10 PM, Cee said:

Snip 'em and cut 'em into at least 2 seperate pieces so the rings don't snag birds and other creatures once they reach the environment

The first time of use the rings give that authentic, "Crackin' a beer" kind of feeling but after that, I end up snipping them off. Less clutter to gather bacteria, for one thing. I think it also looks better to not have old rings on bottles - if aesthetics like that matter to you. 

They are 100% recyclable plastic so if you can get them recycled go for it.

I am wearing right now a pair of prescription designer glasses made out of 100% recycled shampoo bottles collected from hairdressing salons in Australia and the  glasses are made in Australia as well, yeah, who knew that Australia could still manufacture things. My coffee cup is on a coaster made from them as well

I work for the social enterprise that collects 95% of all waste (resources) from hair and beauty salons. we sort and separate, sell the items and once sold we donate 100% of the money to feed people in need. We even repurpose the hair. 

[Graculus]

6 hours ago, Cult Of One said:

They are 100% recyclable plastic so if you can get them recycled go for it.

I am wearing right now a pair of prescription designer glasses made out of 100% recycled shampoo bottles collected from hairdressing salons in Australia and the  glasses are made in Australia as well, yeah, who knew that Australia could still manufacture things. My coffee cup is on a coaster made from them as well

I work for the social enterprise that collects 95% of all waste (resources) from hair and beauty salons. we sort and separate, sell the items and once sold we donate 100% of the money to feed people in need. We even repurpose the hair. 

I agree with @Cee regarding cutting them in half. From my understanding they'd be too small to be recycled.

Unless they were put into a larger container, like a water bottle or something.

Same as the metal bottle tops of beer bottles. I remember hearing someone on the radio. She said she kept an old baked bean can on the countertop.

She put all her beer bottle tops inside, bent it up so the bottle tops wouldn't fall out and put that in the recycling.

[Cult Of One]

16 hours ago, Graculus said:

I agree with @Cee regarding cutting them in half. From my understanding they'd be too small to be recycled.

Unless they were put into a larger container, like a water bottle or something.

Same as the metal bottle tops of beer bottles. I remember hearing someone on the radio. She said she kept an old baked bean can on the countertop.

She put all her beer bottle tops inside, bent it up so the bottle tops wouldn't fall out and put that in the recycling.

Yep that's what we do at our place. PET pieces go into another PET bottle. we remove lids from milk bottles, separate all plastics. Its Miss 12 that has rights and responsibilities over our sustainability efforts at home. She sometimes lectures the neighbors when they put stuff in our recycling bin that are wrong! 

[Malter White]

On 11/25/2022 at 11:21 AM, Cult Of One said:

I work for the social enterprise that collects 95% of all waste (resources) from hair and beauty salons. we sort and separate, sell the items and once sold we donate 100% of the money to feed people in need. We even repurpose the hair. 

So being bald I'm not really doing my bit for the environment then? 

[Pickles Jones]

I had a mixture of tops with collars removed and tops with the collars intact to try and see if there was any improvement in the number of flat bottles I was experiencing.

It didn't make any difference. I then moved over to glass bottles with crown seals, they solved the problem.

Then went to Swing Top bottles.  Had the occasional flat one, changed its seal all ok.

I started kegging a little while ago, this is not without its challenges but that's what brewing beer it's all about. 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by Pickles Jones

[Classic Brewing Co]

46 minutes ago, Malter White said:

So being bald I'm not really doing my bit for the environment then? 

I am sure there would be something you could contribute Malter, maybe a solar panel  

[Cult Of One]

1 hour ago, Malter White said:

So being bald I'm not really doing my bit for the environment then? 

Right there with ya my friend. Been shaving what little is left for many years now Sadly  Still as an ex hairdresser in the 80s and 90s my wife and kids hair looks great and I have donated their ponytails to me made into wigs for people going through chemo and Alopecia Areata

[Graculus]

21 hours ago, Cult Of One said:

Yep that's what we do at our place. PET pieces go into another PET bottle. we remove lids from milk bottles, separate all plastics. Its Miss 12 that has rights and responsibilities over our sustainability efforts at home. She sometimes lectures the neighbors when they put stuff in our recycling bin that are wrong! 

If I tried lecturing my neighbours about their recycling I'm sure it would end up with the police being called!!!

Anyhow I only check my neighbours recycling to retrieve the empties, late on a night after it's dark.

Either to get the crown top beer bottles or the others for the 10 cents back that my son collects to help at the Surf Life Saving.

And while we're on recycling let's not forget those little stickers they put on fruit. They do not compost.

The best way to get rid of them is to stick them on a plastic bottle of some kind.

[Classic Brewing Co]

16 minutes ago, Graculus said:

If I tried lecturing my neighbours about their recycling I'm sure it would end up with the police being called!!!

Anyhow I only check my neighbours recycling to retrieve the empties, late on a night after it's dark.

Either to get the crown top beer bottles or the others for the 10 cents back that my son collects to help at the Surf Life Saving.

And while we're on recycling let's not forget those little stickers they put on fruit. They do not compost.

The best way to get rid of them is to stick them on a plastic bottle of some kind.

I think recycling is very important, I have always tried to do my bit but upon observing some neighbours practices it makes you wonder what the inside of their house looks like & how they live, not so much these days as the area I live in now is a little more tourist orientated & the Council is very much hands on.

I have always recycled any cans & bottles that are worth 10 cents, why wouldn't I.

[Efendi]

I find breaking off the security collars to be best done with a pair of pliers, no cutting required, they just pull away.