i'm going to ignore the financial costs until a direction has been settled so your point would be an optimisation problem in regard to environmental effect ie.

i'm going to ignore the financial costs until a direction has been settled so your point would be an optimisation problem in regard to environmental effect ie. what's less damaging? pacific garbage patch or truck diesel emissions? if i had to dream up a bottling system now my interest would be in resource renewal.. mainly biodegradable substances perhaps a waxed paper? i'm unsure what the weight costs would be on paper versus plastic, and i'd also want to investigate environmental effects of cans