Glass Packaging?
A large number of non alcoholic beverages are not packed in glass.
In cans and PET containers.
Does anybody know a reason why alcoholic beverages need to be packaged in glass?
Broken glass is potentially hazardous for everybody (not just drunks) compared to most injuries caused by broken glass a flat tire seems trivial.
Would phasing out glass beverage containers generally benefit society?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Just another psycho-list on -
As long as the carcinogens are not in the new plastics, then it should be a benefit. No longer could yobbs in a pub smash a bottle and attack someone with the remnant. No longer would people get it stuck in their bare feet. No longer would the puncture fairy strike as often!
Though it does taste nice drinking out of glass rather than plastic.
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Permalink Reply by Don (Who's lost?) Nairn on -
Does it seem ironic to worry about chemicals in a PET container affecting your health considering the adverse health effects of drinking alcohol?
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Permalink Reply by Rob Wood on -
Glass has many advantages over plastic from a recycling and environmental view.
1.In some instances in Europe, glass bottles can simply be cleaned thoroughly and refilled and sold saving a lot of energy.
2.If the glass does need to be recycled ie reground and reformed, it uses relatively little energy.
3. Glass can be infinitely remade into glass, whereas many plastics aren't actually recycled but downcycled in the sense that they become lesser materials and lesser products, hence we will constantly have to create virgin material.
4. Plastics are made of oil and we all know the issues of that! (Yes im aware of bio-plastics, but dont think we are there yet, they are certainly not being utilised on a mass scale in the drinks industry)
5. I would argue that waste plastic is far more hazardous than waste glass (this is my own assumed opinion, dont have much to back it up). Plastic will always be plastics, ie there are massive amounts of plastics floating in our oceans and littering our landscapes that will always be plastics. It never actually dissolves or breaks down, just becomes smaller and smaller pieces until we cant see it anymore. Who knows what this is doing to our oceans and soils.
Glass on the other hand does break down, smooth out and eventually once again become sand,
Good info here for more reasons.Sorry, my rant is over!
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Permalink Reply by greg looyestyn on
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+1
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Permalink Reply by Don (Who's lost?) Nairn on
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Certainly the link is a great example of the smoke and mirrors that companies use in rent seeking behavior.
The use of weasel words, irrelevant facts and pseudo science reinforces this.
Certainly glass lobbyists such as the friends of glass seem keen on assessing costs so how do you put a dollar figure on the a person cutting their foot on broken glass?
If glass was phased out producers would have to use different packaging.
Even the wine industry can change how much wine is packages with a cork to seal it now?
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Permalink Reply by Roger ... on -
Single serve beer should come in cans. no options just cans.
remember ring pulls? they got banned because the tabs presented a hazard to walkers.
These days littering a whole broken bottle is acceptable.
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Permalink Reply by heather on -
In 1975 introduced a can system which did not have ring pulls. Are ring pulls still vetoed in Australia?
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Permalink Reply by snappy_don on -
Rob.
I won't argue with any of your logic- all sound.
But I'll still curse glass (and the wielders thereof) to hell and back when I ride through yet another shattered stubby.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Brisco on -
We COULD go back to medieval times - beer came in wooden barrels, or ceramic jugs, mugs, and bottles.
We cyclists would then be complaining, about pot-shards, horse-manure and wood-splinters on the road.
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Permalink Reply by snappy_don on
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At least I could chuck the manure at the losers who drop ceramic jugs on the road..
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