Are glass bottles and Jars greener than those made of plastic?

Question

Since all plastics are made from oil (aren't they?) surely glass has got to be greener .. its easy to recycle ... you just heat it up .. and its made from sand and we have a whole coast of that! What do you think?

Answer 1

Yes, it is - its strange the way manufacturers have opted for CHEAPER plastic to INCREASE THEIR PROFITS and are nor relucatant to return to the SLIGHTLY MORE EXPENSIVE METHOD THAT WOULD AFFECT THEIR PROFIT MARGIN.

No idea as to why though

£££££££££££££

Answer 2

yes i would say so.xx

Answer 3

There are several problems here, apart from the current hysteria about poisons in plastics.

  Most plastics used in bottles can be recycled.  How much and how often depends on the plastic.  Plastics are not all made from petroleum - it is possible to make them from other organic material including plant oils (corn, olive, canola, etc.)

  While glass can be recycled relatively easily, it has problems with being labeled as "green" because it takes a lot of fuel (and thus makes a lot of CO2) to make it from sand at high temperatures and glass is heavy, so it takes more fuel than an equivalent plastic bottle to move it by truck, train, etc.   Glass bottles can not be made much thinner than current disposable beer bottles without there being too much breakage in shipping and carrying home, while the plastics industry has already taken a number of steps to thin bottles so if you pickup various brands of empties, you will find that some water bottles are almost like balloons in thickness (no carbonation to strain them) compared to older ones or soda bottles.

Answer 4

I really miss glass containers.  The plastic ones can be unhealthy not to mention spoiling the taste of the product they hold.  I bought some water a few times and you could smell the plastic in the water even if it was poured into a glass.  I didn't dare drink it.

What would make a good question is, How much oil is used up by the plastics industries?

Answer 5

yeah cos theyre easier to recycle and the recycling stations are more widerspread than those of plastic bottles

Answer 6

Plastic bottles leach chemicals into the water that they hold. Get a Sigg or Klean Kanteen bottle. They are reusable and will not leach chemicals into the land fill. Also, they are reusable.

Answer 7

While plastics are made from oil,  the manufacturing of plastics uses less energy than the manufacturing of glass.  Because of the weight,  transporting products in glass containers would use more fuel than transporting the same products in plastic containers.  I don't know which is greener.  I just want to make people aware of this part of the equation.

Answer 8

They're actually about the same, believe it or not. Glass and plastic both take a lot a lot of burning for their chemicals to melt and become able to form the required shapes we desire. Glass puts more fumes in the air since it's thicker, but there are more chemicals in plastic, so both are bad.

Answer 9

i prefer glass, it feels cleaner and easier to recycle

Answer 10

i think you are totally correct!