Environmental impact analysis of 5 types of packaging

The Conversation, a medium of the academic and research community from different countries, conducted an “experiment” in order to demonstrate the environmental impact of 5 different types of beverage packaging: glass bottles, recycled glass bottles, plastic bottles, Aluminium cans and recycled Aluminium cans.

The glass bottle turned out to be the container with the greatest environmental impact, “as it requires more resources and energy to produce. The manufacture of glass involves the extraction of raw materials such as silica sand and dolomite”, whose inhalation can cause silicosis. On the other hand, “glass bottles have a contribution approximately 95% greater to global warming than Aluminium cans”.

Plastic bottles finished third, “but the effects of plastic waste worldwide are well documented. Glass and Aluminium don’t break into harmful microparticles like plastic does.”

The containers with the least impact turned out to be the Aluminium cans, taking the best place the recycled ones.

“Recycled Aluminium cans were the least environmentally harmful single-use container we analysed. Aluminium can be recycled constantly without changes in its properties. Recycling an Aluminium can saves 95% of the energy used to make a new can and there is no need to extract or transport new material.”

Photo: You can’t put the photos of the item because they have to be paid (Shutterstock). So you could look at Unsplash which are free images and you already place glass drink containers, cans, etc.