Zip tie alternatives – using less plastic.

I started thinking about the amount of zip tie tails I cut off and bin, the number used zip ties there were in the shed and asked on Twitter for alternatives. Someone suggested copper wire so I gave it a go with a bit of solid core mains I’d had lying around for years.

I realise it’s a drop in the ocean but I’m left feeling marginally better about the amount of plastic I’m binning and, to my eye, it looks reasonable too.

Not for every situation, but I’ve found velcro straps really useful and versatile. I happened to get some with kit form Alpkit, originally for securing bike packing gear. But now use it for all sorts of things, where in the past I would have used zip ties. It has some advantages, as is undoable/redoable etc. Weighs next to nothing. I even store a few spare straps just wrapped round my top tube, just in case.

Like your thinking, but I’m not sure copper wire is reliable enough.

I’ve always broken it by folding and wiggling it, so I suspect that in use it may fatigue and break.

I have used green steel garden wire for similar uses without problems though.

we.ve just moved from zip ties to velcro wraps in our factory after someone worked out how many zip ties were being used in the production process. One product was being zip tied, cut off, zip tied etc with three ties, 6 times as it moved through the factory and the different processes.

but that copper will go a lovely green pretty soon…

we use cotton packing string at our work in place of zip ties for securing labels through out the process like jambo…. of course it relies on people being able to tie knots that dont require cutting to remove….

Of course how much better it is for enviroment than plastic is questionable but its better than zip ties

Could also use reusable zip ties to a similar ends.

Its the one use and dispose thing i hate rather than the material

it may fatigue and break.

I’ve got some zinc plated fencing wire of a similar diameter I can try too – I quite liked the idea of the copper weathering though 🙂

I was trying to avoid anything with a plastic coating, tbh, I realise there’s probably less waste with some of the other alternatives but they wouldn’t, to my eye, look like more than ‘I ran out of zip ties these do the same job but don;t look as good’ rather than I’d chosen them. Not sure why that matters, just vanity I guess.

Just watch out for galvanic corrosion if you ride in the wet, particularly with road salt, that copper will eat its way through the frame in no time.

It’s a carbon frame?

That looks good. I was wondering the same for those jobs where string just won’t do.  Will try this.

We’ve had to look at plastic alternatives for a major event we’re working on.

Branding & site signage usually uses lots of cable ties so after a fair bit of research we’ve ended up with these –

http://www.rapstrap.com/

So far so good – reusable, cuts down on waste and they’ve held up to our testing

zip ties are reusuable, just as an aside

Some are. Cheap ones like the type we used to use thousands of a year weren’t.

They all are. You can release the catch with the tip of a knife or even the bitter end of the zip tie as long as it isn’t too tight. Not really worthwhile from a cost/time perspective but handy if you need an emergency one

I recently acquired an emergency Zip tie from a planning notice on a lamp post, was good enough to fix my rear derailleur in a usable gear to get me home after my gear cable snapped….

….and environmentally friendly, re-used the zip tie and the mrs didn’t have to drive 50 miles to come rescue me.

Not read the thread but it’s what you throw out that matters rather than what you use.

It’s dead easy to cut off zip ties and re use them, shortening them each time. You get so much off of packaging you barely need to buy any.

Copper wire is recyclable maybe? But would you bother for such a small piece.

Though there are tricks to re-use zip ties you can also get re-usable zip ties where there is a catch to release the tie. Also what is wrong with the plastic clips you use and re-use to clip cables into the brazed on cable guides? for the application in the photo above where two cable runs are used you can get plastic cable guides to add on.

The potential issue I see with the copper solution above is that the copper will chafe against the metal of the frame and damage it unlike plastic…also copper is also a material in short supply due to the massive increase in global demand for copper causing more and more intensive mining activities.

But in anycase my used zip ties go into the recycle bin. Hopefully they actually get recycled rather than exported to another countries land fill which is what I suspect happens.

What’s wrong with the responsible use and disposal of plastic? It either gets recycled or landfilled.

What’s going to happen to the bits of copper when you’re finished with them? Recycle or landfill.

What’s the difference?

I was just thinking about the amount of plastic I use really and zip ties seem to be an easy way to use ever so slightly less and I was quite pleased with the result.

For cable guides I use 10cm long 2mm wide ties and cut probably 8cm off every one immediately after fitting. I cut them ‘snug’ against the clip so there’s no sharp end sticking out which makes it impossible to retighten then even if I did put them on in a way that let me release them. So, I’m throwing 3/4 of the weight of the tie away just fitting it and the rest the first time I want to do a bit of bike maintenance that involves moving a hose or cable outer. I doubt the plastic in them is currently recyclable in the UK so they’re going to either go to a power station or landfill once I bin them.

For the copper – I have a few bits of old solid core mains in the ‘might be useful’ pile that haven’t moved for 5+ years and I also have a box for metal recycling I take to the tip. every now and again.

I realise not using Zip ties on my bikes isn;t going to save the world, I was just interested in what the alternative with the open type of cable guide was and thought I’d share this. It’s clearly not going to work in a commercial setting as the time taken is too long but for someone who wants a neater, non-plastic, solution than a bit of string it might be worth considering.

I’d rather they’d done this all over the bike, tbh – I think it’s a better solution:

I’m not knocking your thought process of wanting to reduce your waste, but the copper processing to produce the cable is as nasty as the nylon processing for the cable tie. And the cable has PVC insulation on it. That’s worse than the nylon.

What do you do with your cable outers  after use? Plastic outer, plastic inner, with a coil of steel.