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In the sustainability debate over glass vs plastic, the former generally comes out on top. There is a widely held perception amongst environmentalists that glass equals green. As such, zero-waste homes are often replete with rows of glass jars containing whole foods. However, the conception that glass is always better for the environment needs revising. In fact, a range of factors like manufacturing, weight, transportation, recyclability, and reusability, need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. There may well be instances when plastic is the greener option.
We delve deeper into this topic below to help you make more sustainable decisions.
One of the great green characteristics of glass is its recyclability. It can be recycled into new glass without impacting its quality or integrity. This process can theoretically continue endlessly. By contrast, the quality of plastic degrades as it’s recycled. This means that it’s much harder to recycle it into the same product again. For example, plastic bottles are rarely recycled into new plastic bottles because the recycled plastic lacks the requisite integrity. Rather, plastic gets recycled into another lower quality form, such as plastic lumber.
Consequently, when you buy something that’s wrapped in plastic, it’s often new plastic. Glass containers, however, can easily be made from recycled material. Not all containers you see will be, but a growing proportion of them are. As a result, glass outperforms plastic in this specific regard.
Environmental impact can be measured using a variety of different metrics. Let’s take a look at some of those key measures below.
Global Warming Potential (GWP) is an oft-used measure for environmental impact. It indicates the amount of extra heat a gas traps in the atmosphere. Specifically, this is measured over time and relative to carbon dioxide (CO2). In this case, manufacturing glass is often better than plastic. However, glass is much heavier than plastic, meaning that transporting it produces far more pollution than plastic does.
Recycling is a process we’re all familiar with. This is when we convert waste into reusable products or other materials. Let’s examine glass vs plastic bottles below:
Glass Bottles vs |
Glass Bottle |
Plastic Bottle |
How Many |
Theoretically, infinitely |
Once or twice, then it is downcycled into other materials. |
% Of Product |
80% |
9.5% |
So, are glass bottles better than plastic? As can be seen, glass is the clear winner when it comes to recycling. However, efforts to recycle more plastic are growing quickly. Global corporations such as Coca Cola and PepsiCo are working to achieve this.
As mentioned earlier, plastic is considerably lighter than glass, which means that less greenhouse gasses are produced when transporting it. This is a major concern, since products go through a lot of transportation over their life cycles. Transporting them to a bottling plant, then a shop, then a recycling plant or another bottling facility, and so on, starts to add up.
To further illustrate this point, a 500ml glass bottle weighs around 400g. By contrast, a 500ml plastic bottle weighs roughly 10g. This makes glass bottles around 40 times heavier than their plastic counterparts, leading to considerably higher fuel emissions when transporting them in large quantities.
Glass
Pros
Cons
Plastic
Pros
Cons
As you can see, the debate around glass vs plastic is more complex than many assume when you look at the full picture. One isn’t always better than the other. More often than not though, glass will be a better alternative to plastic because it’s generally friendlier on the environment. But just remember that on some occasions, plastic could actually be the greener choice.
Whichever way you end up going, try to take the path that reduces your carbon footprint. And no matter what you’re using, always make an effort to recycle and reuse it as much as possible, whether it be plastic or glass.
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