Quote:
Originally Posted by Kizzy
Can we have an explanation of why?
|
It's energy (and thus carbon) intensive to smelt sand into glass, and the amount of sand needed to fulfil the world glass needs even NOW is causing coastline erosion. If plastic was totally replaced by glass, you'd be tripling-or-more the glass production requirements.
Its also significantly heavier than plastic, which means you need more vehicles (at least double) to ship the same volume of produce, which again adds to emissions.
The argument is that it can be recycled or reused and is therefore better, but there wouldn't be a problem with plastic if people were recycling it. The reason that it's a problem is that people are NOT recycling. Why would anyone think people are suddenly going to start recycling glass?
Its marginally better in the short term because of the immediate threat that plastics pose to the ocean, but glass as a long term solution just isn't sensible or viable.