TikTok Is Losing Its Mind Over This Meatless Bacon Made From 100% Recycled Water Bottles

Alliston, Ontario—Young people on the popular video-sharing platform, TikTok, are jumping on the newest trend based on a brand of meatless bacon released in Spring of 2024. Known as the Bacon Swap, the trend challenges people to distinguish between a traditional piece of bacon and one made by Revolutionize The Sizzle---a startup specializing in bacon made with recycled plastic bottles.

"I took the challenge," said Brayden Nguyen of Alliston, Ontario, whose flexitarian girlfriend filmed the video. "I couldn't tell the difference at all. You get a bit of a gargle in your stomach after the meatless one, but that's it."

Some claim to have changed to Revolutionize The Sizzle's brand of bacon because of the taste, because someone in their household is vegetarian, or because they're looking to avoid the higher-in-cholesterol processed meat of their parents' generation, but this newest strip of bacon packs something different: a promise for a better climate.

"Sure, regular vegan bacon has a much smaller impact on the environment. Eating vegetables creates a tiny carbon footprint compared with raising livestock and managing their waste. But this bacon is the first to actually take something out of landfills," Alice Jones, Nguyen's girlfriend, also a resident of Alliston, said. "I'd pay the extra $2.99 a pound for that kind of peace of mind."

The argument, according to Jones, Nguyen, and other advocates, is that a person could drink from a plastic water bottle and rest assured that they've done no harm—that is, so long as they eat a product afterwards made from recycled water bottles. 

"If you ask me, it's all bollocks," Cindy Jones, Alice's mother, said, standing beside her daughter. "And I'm a vegetarian. These influencers want to have it both ways and all ways. They want to eat bacon and not eat bacon. They want to drink out of plastic and somehow cancel it out afterwards. All a business has to do is nod in the general direction of a worthy cause and they'll blow their student loan on it."

Our reporters indicate that Alice gave what all interpreted to be an eye roll and referred to her mother as a "real Karen sometimes." 

At the time of publishing, a new challenge was circulating TikTok where adult children feed their parents the meatless bacon and record their reactions to the main ingredient.