4 ms·

If bottles moved to glass, many companies will quickly switch to returnable bottles, which will increase incentives to use standard bottle sizes, which in turn

by mrpopo 4y ago

If bottles moved to glass, many companies will quickly switch to returnable bottles, which will increase incentives to use standard bottle sizes, which in turn may reduce the distance that bottles travel, etc. It's also likely that prices will increase and therefore consumption will decrease (contributing to solving the obesity crisis in the process). You can't predict things in a vacuum. Also, how much would that increase CO2 emissions in the worst case? Plastic pollution and climate change are separate problems. If we are solving plastic pollution effectively, wouldn't it be worth a hypothetical .5% increase in global CO2 ?

carlmr 4y ago
We already have somewhat standardized glass bottles for easier local returns in Germany. I think it's a good system to avoid plastic trash.
bombcar 4y ago
Beer is almost universally glass in the US and we don’t reuse. I’d like to see standard glass bottles that are universally reusable and washable, but there are claims it’s more energy to wash than to make new (which I suspect is funny accounting).
- tristan957 4y ago
  No brewery that I go to uses bottles for distribution. If you are talking about major beer brands, I would like to see some stats.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    https://www.beerinstitute.org/trends-beer-packaging/ https://www.beerinstitute.org/trends-beer-packaging/ > Glass bottles compose nearly one-third of all beer volume in the United States and nearly two-thirds of above premium segment volume. I think the "premium" is what I'm noticing; I kind of ignore all the large packs of aluminum beer cans (though to be honest that's the only beer I have on hand right now). What I have very rarely seen is plastic beer - only at stadiums where they don't want you throwing the bottle at the players, basically. Of course, the only proper beer container is a giant keg.
ip26 4y ago
Glass + collection programs exist in Central America, and it quickly became apparent the biggest victim of glass reuse is branding. In that environment, standard bottle shapes in standard colors do best, and you can’t run a flashy marketing campaign with a new batch of labels. It explains why plastic is so favored, but it’s also depressing, as I consider branding mostly zero-sum.

by mrpopo 4y ago

carlmr 4y ago

We already have somewhat standardized glass bottles for easier local returns in Germany. I think it's a good system to avoid plastic trash.

bombcar 4y ago

Beer is almost universally glass in the US and we don’t reuse. I’d like to see standard glass bottles that are universally reusable and washable, but there are claims it’s more energy to wash than to make new (which I suspect is funny accounting).

tristan957 4y ago
No brewery that I go to uses bottles for distribution. If you are talking about major beer brands, I would like to see some stats.
- bombcar 4y ago
  https://www.beerinstitute.org/trends-beer-packaging/ https://www.beerinstitute.org/trends-beer-packaging/ > Glass bottles compose nearly one-third of all beer volume in the United States and nearly two-thirds of above premium segment volume. I think the "premium" is what I'm noticing; I kind of ignore all the large packs of aluminum beer cans (though to be honest that's the only beer I have on hand right now). What I have very rarely seen is plastic beer - only at stadiums where they don't want you throwing the bottle at the players, basically. Of course, the only proper beer container is a giant keg.

ip26 4y ago

Glass + collection programs exist in Central America, and it quickly became apparent the biggest victim of glass reuse is branding. In that environment, standard bottle shapes in standard colors do best, and you can’t run a flashy marketing campaign with a new batch of labels. It explains why plastic is so favored, but it’s also depressing, as I consider branding mostly zero-sum.