If you are worried about the future of the planet and the health of your loved ones, you shouldn't compromise and choose glass packaging. This is what emerges from an article recently published in the “2020 Future of Packaging Report”. Not only is glass indefinitely recyclable, it is also inert, which means it does not interact with the food and drink it contains.
You may have missed the Plastic Free held in July this year, perhaps distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, but it is a global movement, established in 2011, which aims to encourage behavioral transformation and to change mentality to heal the planet and its inhabitants. Those who attended the Plastic Free July chose to reject single-use plastic for one month. Plastic Free July and similar initiatives raise awareness that we all have a role to play. Individually and collectively we must change behaviors now, for the good of the planet and for the health of all.
“The first step to take is increase our recycling business and that goes for all packaging materials, ”says Randolph Burns, head of sustainability and corporate affairs at OI Glass, one of the world's leading manufacturers of glass packaging.
"In Europe, for example, glass is already 76% recycled, but the industry in the sector is joining forces with the initiative Close The Glass Loop so that the average of glass packaging collected and recycled by 2030 reaches 90%.
Finding alternative and innovative materials to glass is not an easy task. Recently many advertisements have highlighted the sustainable characteristics of paper wine "bottles". However, these containers that are more reminiscent of milk cartons than bottles are more complex than one might initially think: they are made up of a chemical pulp and have a plastic coating that acts as a protective barrier between the wine and the paper. Although the use of paper bottles can lead to savings on transport costs compared to glass, which is heavier, we cannot consider it a completely sustainable solution.
Glass packaging offers consumers exactly what they demand: a sustainable material that does not harm the earth and people's health.
When consumers choose glass, they also choose packaging that does not interact with the food or drink it contains. Glass is the only packaging material “Generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration. It naturally protects what it contains and is waterproof and non-porous.
The message about the health benefits of glass is reaching consumers as well. From the Friends of Glass study it emerges that approx 87% of people in Europe prefer it as a packaging material.
