So this is now a thing. And maybe it will finally resolve the caps-on-or-off debate in plastic recycling.
If the "phenomenon" of the Bottle Cap Challenge attracts the attention of both singer John Mayer and action film star Jason Statham., it's a thing. The challenge is to unscrew a bottle cap only using the bottom of your foot using a round-house kick.
It takes precision, nerves of steel, and boredom to accomplish. Ok, sorry, that last part was a bit snarky.
But, apparently, the challenge traces its roots all the way back to late June when fashion designer Errolson Hugh, who is known for his Acronym clothing design company, accomplished the feat. He was challenged by Farabi Davletchin, a world champion in Taekwondo.
Errolson's Instagram post, which includes "#notbadforafashiondesignerlol," already has racked up more than 1.1 million views in less than a week as of this blog posting.
And there are about 10,100 Insta posts using the "bottlecapchallenge" hashtag as of July 2. Insta, that's what the kids call it. And the cool people.
And now for the obligatory reason you are reading this. There's long been confusion about whether residential recyclers should take their bottle caps off or leave them on when turning in their bottles for recycling. The different resin types between bottle and cap, as well as the idea of one of the caps shooting off during baling and hurting someone, have been past concerns raised.
But the drumbeat from the industry, for the most part, in recent years has been to keep the caps on. There are still some municipalities that require them to be removed, however.
The caps typically don't make it through traditional material recovery facilities because they fall through sorting machinery due to their small size. So keeping them on helps the cap make their way to plastic recyclers who can grind and separate the resins.
See what happened here — tying together an industry issue with a budding social media trend. That's worth extra credit.
Jason Statham could not be reached for comment regarding his stance whether caps should be left on during recycling. Just kidding, we didn't even try to call.