From Glass to Plastic

One of the questions I am most often asked about my packaging is why I don't use glass bottles which are infinitely more recyclable and hence people assume more environmentally friendly than the plastic we currently use. Unfortunately the issues are a little more complicated than that.

The primary reason for plastic is that glass is a safety hazard and in many countries can't be used in the bathroom. There are still occurrences where glass does find its way into bathrooms, such as in small vials, but by and large glass is a risk in a slippery environment where one would likely be walking in bare feet.

The second reason why we don't use glass is weight. Glass bottles are significantly heavier than plastic bottles and this has repercussions on transport in regards to the amount of space a consignment will take up as well as the required energy to move it.  More packaging is required to safely pack glass and waste due to breakages will still be an issue. 

This brings us to plastics which are far lighter and less prone to breakage than glass. But plastic is not just plastic. There are countless plastics available for use but the only two plastics which really warrant any discussion are PET and HDPE. Both of these plastics are suitable for use in the personal care industry and more importantly they are the two plastics which are most readily recycled on not just a European but also a global scale.

However of these two plastics, PET is the plastic of choice for not only it's ease of recycling but also the number of facilities able to recycle it. Recycling facilities for HDPE are still not as common which would require the areas that do recycle it to ship it great distances.

Thus our “current assessment” says that PET is the most environmentally friendly choice. Though we are keeping our eyes on the issue as it is swiftly changing as new technologies in plastic develop.

Of course the next question is why don't we use bio-degradable packaging? Well the answer to this warrants its own topic!