The two tobacco companies Altria and Philip Morris International combined made up 2% of the branded plastic litter found, both Danone and Nestlé each produced 3% of it, PepsiCo was responsible for 5% of the discarded packaging, and 11% of branded plastic waste could be traced to the Coca-Cola company.
Imagine how much plastic waste could be eliminated if Coke and Pepsi just went back to glass bottles?
We should also account for extra emissions due to higher weight and lower density in transportation. Glass is significantly heavier, and you need more of it per item for the same strength, so you’ll be moving fewer total bottles per truckload.
Aluminum is also recyclable, durable, light, and cheap, though I don’t know if aluminum litter is better than plastic. I assume it is since I’ve not heard of micro-aluminum causing environmental damage (yet).
We should also account for extra emissions due to higher weight and lower density in transportation.
That’s more a consequence of business efforts to minimize labor costs. There’s very little reason not to produce, recycle, and dispose of glass waste locally, unless you’re trying to leverage cheap fossil fuel energy in order to get around the domestic wage rates.
Imagine how much plastic waste could be eliminated if Coke and Pepsi just went back to glass bottles?
Is glass litter better?
We should also account for extra emissions due to higher weight and lower density in transportation. Glass is significantly heavier, and you need more of it per item for the same strength, so you’ll be moving fewer total bottles per truckload.
Aluminum is also recyclable, durable, light, and cheap, though I don’t know if aluminum litter is better than plastic. I assume it is since I’ve not heard of micro-aluminum causing environmental damage (yet).
That’s more a consequence of business efforts to minimize labor costs. There’s very little reason not to produce, recycle, and dispose of glass waste locally, unless you’re trying to leverage cheap fossil fuel energy in order to get around the domestic wage rates.