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Glass bottles are much WORST for the environment than plastic because their production uses more energy and resources, according to a study
- Southampton researchers evaluated various types of beverage packaging
- They considered the impact of glass and plastic bottles, milk cans and cartons
- Part of the problem with glass bottles is that they are not being reused enough today
- The most ecological containers are cartons and aluminum cans
Manufacturing glass bottles is so energy and resource consuming that it makes them four times worse for the environment than plastic bottles, a study warned.
Southampton researchers assessed the impact of various types of beverage packaging, including glass and plastic bottles, aluminum cans and milk cartons.
They concluded that plastic bottles are definitely harmful to the environment, as their production requires significant amounts of energy.
In addition, they last long after disposal and have the potential to degrade and spread as microplastics deemed harmful to health.
However, the team concluded, the total impact of glass bottles is worse when one takes into account their energy footprint and the damage from resource extraction.
Furthermore, glass bottles are too often discarded after a single use nowadays, they said, despite being such that they can be reused 12-20 times.
The most environmentally friendly beverage containers, the team concluded, were milk and juice cartons and 100% aluminum cans.
The manufacturing process for glass bottles (pictured) is so energy-intensive that it makes them much worse for the environment than plastic bottles, one studio warned (archive image)
“A tremendous amount of energy is required to heat the raw materials to make the glass,” Alice Brock, author of the paper and environmental scientist at the University of Southampton, told the newspaper i.
“During the melting of raw materials for glass, polluting gases such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide can be released,” he added.
“And because glass requires the extraction of materials for its production – silica sand, sodium carbonate and dolomite – this has all the environmental impacts associated with mining.”
These, Dr Brock explained, include land degradation, dust emission and the risk of mining runoff polluting water sources.
Additionally, silica sand mining can result in silicosis, an occupational health disease in which inhalation of crystalline silica dust causes lung tissue inflammation and scarring – and is a lifelong disease with no cure.
According to the researchers, about one hundredth of the raw materials that go into glass production are lost in the form of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-inducing gases.
Glass has prevailed over plastic in its negative contributions to climate change, fresh water and toxicity, ocean acidification and so-called freshwater eutrophication, the phenomenon in which nutrient-rich waters induce dangerous levels of growth algal.
Glass has prevailed over plastic in its negative contributions to climate change, fresh water and toxicity, ocean acidification and so-called freshwater eutrophication, the phenomenon in which nutrient-rich waters induce dangerous levels of growth algal. In the photo, production of glass bottles
“I think the implications of this research are that we really need to move to the reuse of bottles and cans. Simple recycling is not enough,” Dr. Brock told the newspaper i.
“We need to change our mindset and move on to things like bottle filling, bottle return systems and the like if we are to reduce these environmental impacts.”
Although cartons were less harmful to the environment in general than glass and plastic bottles, they still contain plastic elements.
Full study results were published in the journal Detritus.
Eight million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year
Of the 30 billion plastic bottles used by British households every year, only 57% are currently recycled.
With half of these going to landfills, half of all plastic bottles that are recycled go to waste.
About 700,000 plastic bottles a day end up as waste.
This is largely due to the plastic wrapping around the bottles which are not recyclable.
Bottles are a major contributor to the growing amount of plastic waste in the world’s oceans.
Researchers have warned that eight million tons of plastic currently end up in the ocean every year – the equivalent of one truckload every minute.
The amount of plastic waste in the world’s oceans will exceed fish by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle further, a report released in 2016 revealed.
At current rates, this will worsen to four truckloads per minute in 2050 and surpass native life to become the largest mass inhabiting the oceans.
An overwhelming 95% of plastic packaging – valued at £ 65 – £ 92bn – is lost to the economy after a single use, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation report says.
And available research estimates that there are more than 150 million tons of plastic in the ocean today.
Plastic pollution is ruining the world’s ecosystems, both marine and terrestrial. It scatters shores, grabs animals and suffocates entire populations of animals
Scientists have warned that so much plastic is dumped into the sea each year that it would fill five bags on every foot of the planet’s coastline.
More than half of the plastic waste that flows into the oceans comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
The only Western industrialized country on the list of the top 20 plastic polluters is the United States at number 20.
The United States and Europe are not mishandling their collected waste, so the plastic garbage from those countries is due to waste, the researchers said.
While China is responsible for 2.4 million tons of plastic making its way into the ocean, nearly 28% of the world total, the United States only contributes 77,000 tons, which is less than 1%, according to the study. published in the journal Science.
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