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A recent study warned that glass container manufacturing consumes a lot of energy and resources, making it 4 times worse than plastic bottles, as Southampton researchers assessed the impact of different types of beverage packaging, including plastic bottles, aluminum cans and milk cans and their effect on the environment and health.
According to reports from the Daily Mail, plastic bottles are definitely harmful to the environment, as their manufacture requires large amounts of energy, moreover, they last a long time after disposal and have the ability to decompose and spread like plastic particles. deemed harmful to health, however, the team concluded. The overall effect of glass bottles is worse when taking into account the energy footprint and damage resulting from resource extraction.
Additionally, bottles are often discarded after one use nowadays, they say, although they can be reused 12 to 20 times, and the team concluded that the most environmentally friendly beverage containers are milk and juice cans and aluminum cans. 100%. %.
The author of the article and environmental scientist Alice Brock of the University of Southampton said that an enormous amount of energy is required to heat the raw materials to make the glass.“.
“As the raw materials for melting glass, gaseous pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide can be released, and since glass requires the extraction of the materials to produce it – silica sand, sodium carbonate and dolomite – this it has all the environmental impacts associated with mining “.. “
Dr Brooke explained that these include soil degradation, dust emissions and the risk of mining runoff which pollutes water sources and harms health.
Additionally, silica sand mining can lead to silicosis, an occupational health disease in which inhalation of crystalline silica dust causes inflammation and scarring of lung tissue, a lifelong disease without treatment..
According to the researchers, about part of the raw materials used to make glass are lost due to the greenhouse effect that stimulates carbon dioxide and other gases..
Dr Brooke told the paper: “Glass is superior to plastic in its negative contributions to climate change, fresh water and toxicity, ocean acidification and so-called freshwater nutrients, a phenomenon in which nutrient-rich water causes levels. I think the implications of this research are We have to move on to reuse bottles and cans, only recycling is not enough, .
“We need to change the way we think and move on to things like bottle refills, bottle return plans and the like if we are to reduce these environmental impacts, while cartons have proven less harmful to the environment in general than bottles and plastics. , still contain plastic elements..
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