Aluminum, Glass Or Plastic Bottles—Which One Is The Ideal Option

Manufacturers are often faced with an important decision to make when it comes to packaging their product. While majority of the manufacturers often make their choice considering financial aspects, it is also important consider how the packaging impacts the environment.

While many people know that plastic isn’t recyclable, it isn’t necessarily the worst type of packaging material for the environment. When choosing between aluminum, glass and plastic packaging, you need to have three aspects in mind: manufacturing process, transportation and disposal.

To help you decide, we will be discussing the different types of packaging materials from these three perspectives.

Manufacturing Process

Plastic

The main ingredients for plastic manufacturing are natural gas and oil. They are first converted into monomers, which are chemically bonded together to make longer chains, called polymers. The polymers are basically plastics that are usually seen in water bottles and other food packaging.

As we all know, the natural gas and oil is obtained deep from the earth’s crust, which is buried in beneath the bedrock. They are obtained through drilling, which is quite harmful for the natural environment.

Glass

Glass is a mixture of soda ash, liquefied sand, limestone and recycled glass.

Limestone, a valuable raw material in glass manufacturing, is mined from quarries which are known to contaminate water and cause noise pollution. Limestone mining also destroys animal habitats and ecosystems in caves and other landscapes.

Aluminum

The main raw material for aluminum is bauxite, which is generally found in Australia and Guinea. Bauxite mining is quite harmful for the planet, as it can only be done through open-pit mining. This means scraping away the landscape and leaving open pits, which leads to water contamination and habitat loss, as well as soil erosion.

Transportation

Plastic

Plastic is the most lightweight material when compared to the other two. This means lighter vehicles can be used for transport. Manufacturers today are also designing plastic bottles in a way that allows more bottles to be transported in smaller spaces, which further reduces the secondary carbon footprint.

Glass

Perhaps the most eco-unfriendly aspect of glass is its weight. Transportation of glass requires significant energy, and since it is also fragile, less glass can be transported in one shipment.

Aluminum

Aluminum is lightweight and extremely durable, which means more aluminum bottles can fit into smaller spaces during transport. Generally, the secondary carbon footprint of transporting aluminum is the same as plastic.

Disposal

Plastic

Most of the plastic ends in landfill sites and oceans, and takes around 200 years to decompose. In fact, every piece of plastic ever manufactured still exists somewhere on the planet. Since plastic isn’t bio-degradable, it leeches harmful toxins into the soil as well.

Glass

The best thing about glass is that it is 100% recyclable. Not only do glass bottles have longer lives, shattered pieces of glass can be used in manufacturing more glass products. This means using glass can actually help in cleaning up the planet.

Aluminum

Just like glass, aluminum can be recycled as many times with no limit. It retains its properties and there’s no degradation in quality either.

Final Verdict

Keeping the above discussion in view, we can conclude that aluminum is the clear winner. However, manufacturers need to keep other aspects in mind as well, such as the best material for maintaining the integrity of the product.

About Us

We are a worldwide supplier of packaging materials including glass and plastic containers, caps and closures and medical cannabis packaging labels. The stocked packaging materials are available in different sizes and different colors, with the company resourcing an adequate capacity of supplying orders in bulk. Call 888-545-3117 for more details or drop an email at support@premiumvials.com.