A tale as old as time.
Is PET really better than glass? Historically, glass has been considered the best packaging material to use from a manufacturing, consumption and environmental perspective, but we’re here to bust some myths, and to explain why now more than ever, your choice to use PET has a significant impact on your environmental footprint.
The Big Debate: PET vs. Glass
So which is better, PET or Glass?
This is an ongoing debate, but through our independent research, we’ve found that single-use glass has a carbon footprint that is 3 times more than that of PET bottles made from virgin material. Not only is PET durable and shatterproof, but it’s also 10 times lighter than glass, which reduces transport carbon emissions by 40%.
But glass is easier to recycle than PET, right?
Not quite. Glass only melts at temperatures in excess of 1000°C – that’s a pretty extreme amount of energy needed to recycle glass. PET packaging on the other hand is more energy-efficient to recycle than glass and uses about half the amount of energy to produce than glass.
Unknown to most, glass is often crushed and used as landfill cover instead of recycling, as this is cheaper than recycling it or finding alternative materials for landfill cover.
In addition to this, due to the alcohol ban in Level 3, large scale glass recycling has been put on hold. South African glass manufacturers, unable to produce and sell alcoholic beverage bottles, cannot receive or buy recyclable cullet, which is the small glass fragments used to manufacture new glass from recycled glass.
LINK: Glass production and local recycling crumbling in the wake of the alcohol ban
Now more than ever, our choice of packaging matters.
We choose PET.
