Are glass containers better for the environment than plastic?

M

Moo Moo

New member
A lot of places like beaches and parks don't allow glass containers but I heard that they are actually better for the environment than plastic because they are made of nothing but melted beach sand, whereas plastic has all kinds of unnatural ingredients in it(if not unnatural, than certainly un-ecological).

Is it true that all you have to do to discard of glass containers is to break it down into sand particles and throw it out your back door, because I could do that easily with the right equipment....
 
You are right, glass is essentially melted and cooled sand.

Glass bottles are often reused. Some are even bought back by the company, to be washed, filled and redistributed. Waste is reduced; bottles are reused. I assume their ban from beaches is due to the fact that a broken glass bottle can cut a person's bare feet.

Plastic bottles can be made of so many different types of resins that it is often times difficult to recycle into new bottles. They are not biodegradable.
 
You seriously don't want glass of any kind on beaches, because people want to be able to run around with bare feet and broken glass can slice open an artery. Serious business. Bring a rubbermaid container.

What's un-ecological is throwaway single-use bottles. They're all bad, glass, plastic or metal, because they take tremendous amounts of energy to make and transport. It's only a small upside that they can be recycled, metal and glass recycle better than plastic.

Metal cans used to be a problem on the beach too, because the pop-tops came all the way off and had sharp edges. That's why they changed them so the pop-top stays with the can.
 
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