Why are we not taking our ecological responsibilities more seriously?

[ubersonic]

And yet plastic is causing more actual damage/concern than glass, by several orders of magnitude.

Hence why nobody has argued otherwise, the point is that on a like for like basis plastic is better for the environment than glass, it causes more damage in total because it's much more widely used, and misused. Saying glass is better because it's less common is like saying it's better to drink lava than water because more people drown each year than die from ingesting lava.

Glass may be inert and break down into harmless sand-like particles, but it's so much less environmentally friendly to manufacture due to requiring so much energy to create and transport. To put it in perspective, the environmental impact of producing a plastic bottle and then incinerating it after use is actually lower than that producing a glass bottle (of virgin or recycled glass) is. And you don't have to incinerate them as an alternative to landfill/ocean, you can recycle almost all plastic too.

 

[FoxEye]

Hence why nobody has argued otherwise, the point is that on a like for like basis plastic is better for the environment than glass, it causes more damage in total because it's much more widely used, and misused. Saying glass is better because it's less common is like saying it's better to drink lava than water because more people drown each year than die from ingesting lava.

Glass may be inert and break down into harmless sand-like particles, but it's so much less environmentally friendly to manufacture due to requiring so much energy to create and transport. To put it in perspective, the environmental impact of producing a plastic bottle and then incinerating it after use is actually lower than that producing a glass bottle (of virgin or recycled glass) is. And you don't have to incinerate them as an alternative to landfill/ocean, you can recycle almost all plastic too.

Except that's not 100% true is it.

From my super-secret Google indexed sources, I learned that glass manufacture uses 5x less energy than PET, also 2x less fossil fuels. And the more recycled glass is used the lower the furnace temps can be, saving even more energy.

The only way glass loses to plastic is when they are both transported over vast distances. With the advent and advancement of electric vehicles and increasing green energy production, this may become less of a concern in future.

Glass also does not need treatment with bisphenol A nor release estrogen as it decays.

Background: Chemicals having estrogenic activity (EA) reportedly cause many adverse health effects, especially at low (picomolar to nanomolar) doses in fetal and juvenile mammals.

Additionally most PET plastic (for food containers) cannot be recycled into more PET plastic products - it has to be "downcycled" into carpets, etc. Whereas glass can be endlessly recycled into more glass.

One of the principle reasons for not liking glass of course is short-sighted economics. It just costs the producers more, and the recycling cost is higher. So plastic is obviously much better, given that most of the CEOs won't need to live with the consequences anyhow.

 

[ubersonic]

From my super-secret Google indexed sources, I learned that glass manufacture uses 5x less energy than PET, also 2x less fossil fuels.

That's wrong, creating a glass object requires more than double the energy of creating a plastic object. In addition per $1 million of products created glass produces triple the pollution, and per 1000 bottles made generates roughly seven times the global warming gases. The bit you read about plastic using more fossil fuels is due to it being made from oil.

There's a good paper on it here based on university studies, it was written by a producer of scientific equipment after they were asked about the environmental impact of switching their test tubes from glass to plastic.

 

[chaparral]

How could they ban everything that plastic

Just take a look around you and I bet there loads of items that are made from plastic..
(Even the keyboard , mouse and monitor am using to write this post are plastic or have plastic on them)

 

[adolf hamster]

How could they ban everything that plastic

Just take a look around you and I bet there loads of items that are made from plastic..
(Even the keyboard , mouse and monitor am using to write this post are plastic or have plastic on them)

Its not all plastic. Its just a case of using it for where a non-biodegradable material is necessary for long service life rather than as a one-use then throw away item.

Perfect example is plastic bottles, a sports bottle that gets re-used for years is preferable to a hundred one-use cola bottles.

 

[englishpremier]

Its not all plastic. Its just a case of using it for where a non-biodegradable material is necessary for long service life rather than as a one-use then throw away item.

Perfect example is plastic bottles, a sports bottle that gets re-used for years is preferable to a hundred one-use cola bottles.

I had a sports/water bottle that was made from corn or something weird like that. Seemed like a flimsy plastic to me, but apparently was biodegradable.