Archive of Vibrant Matter | beer bottle tops

Basic Data

Description: These metal beer bottle tops are crimped onto the head of the glass bottle (usually with 21 crimps). Today they have a plastic insert to assist in getting a waterproof seal, earlier it was often made of cork. Known as "crown cork/seal/cap" bottle tops, they were patented in 1892 by William Painter in Baltimore, USA. Today they are found worldwide being used for non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages sold in glass bottles. If they are thrown away into the wider environment, the metal and plastic can separate. Slowly, the protective coating (paint or metal coated) degrades and the steel inner core starts rusting, releasing ferrous minerals back into the environment. The plastic inserts do not easily degrade.
Submitted by: Alastair Fuad-luke
Typology: Artefact
Origin, Location and Movement?: Omnipresent (present everywhere; ubiquitous)
Address: Praça de Republica, Porto
Item Relation: Several Things
How was the item encountered or obtained?: Found

Socio-cultural Data

Historical Uses

Patented in 1892 by William Painter in Baltimore, Crown Holdings has been manufacturing these pressed, crimpted metal bottle tops for 130 years. Originally the liquid seal inside the metal cap was made of cork but was replaced by synthetic plastics since the 1960s onwards. This type of top is used on drinks containing fermentation gases or carbon dioxide i.e. it can take a certain amount of gas pressure from inside the bottle but still remain intact.

Present Uses

Same as the historical uses i.e. for sodas, beers and carbonated drinks where the top needs to maintain the dissolved gas inside the liquid in the bottle.

Present Impact

Where people gather for music festivals, sporting events or the beach in summer, it is possible to find these crown tops in large numbers if recycling facilities are absent.

Technical Data

Class of Material

Metal (copper, iron, alloys, steel, etc.)

Bio-temporal-geographical Data

Residence time (How long does the matter/material/artefact stay in an unaltered state in the location/context/system before it decay?)

Decades

How does the item affect the environment in which it exists?

Harm it

Ontological-cosmological Data

sadness

What can humans give back to this artefact/material/living thing/matter?

Recycle it, do not just throw it away where it can cause harm to other living things and humans.

# 0064

beer bottle tops

Artefact, Several Things, Found, Metal (copper, iron, alloys, steel, etc.), Decades