Before it becomes a transparent jar that looks great holding all your bulk goodies in the pantry, glass starts out as a few natural raw materials: silica (sand), soda ash, limestone, and/or dolomite, along with a small number of other minerals.
All materials abundantly available on Earth, right?
We’ve got an abundance of sandy beaches to turn into glass! Not so fast…
Only a specific type of sand can be transformed into glass, and it’s often sourced from seabeds and river beds, disrupting natural ecosystems and stealing microorganism habitats.
As the second most consumed natural resource, we’re quickly running out of sand.
In its most environmentally-friendly manner, just sand, soda ash, and limestone are melted at high heat (around 1500°C) to form a liquid that, as it cools, will become glass in its various shapes and sizes.
In some cases (typically not for container glass), dolomite is used in addition to limestone in order to improve the viscosity of glass in its liquid form, which helps to make it more resistant (but can also release pollution).
Let’s back up a bit. 1500°C is HOT.
You can probably guess how heating anything to that high temperature is possible: fossil fuels. In the U.S. this mostly comes from natural gas, but elsewhere it might come from even more carbon-intensive sources, like petroleum or coal.
Glass demands higher heat than plastic, so a greater amount of natural resources are required, including non-renewable materials like sand and minerals. For every ton of finished container glass, roughly 1.17 – 1.19 tons of raw materials are required.
Additionally, glass manufacturing can release dangerous particles into the atmosphere and has been associated with acidification and smog formation.
Here is where glass far outshines plastic (aside from literal appearance, anyway).
Glass is 100% recyclable. Better yet, it’s infinitely recyclable—meaning it can be transformed into a new product again and again without any loss in quality.
Recycling glass is thus an effective way to combat many of its environmental woes; It reduces emissions, saves precious natural materials, and saves energy. Every tonne of cullet (recycled glass) saves roughly 1.2 tonnes of raw materials from being sourced.
According to recyclenow, it also saves roughly 580kg CO2 throughout the supply chain and cuts water and air pollution by 50% and 20%, respectively.
Unfortunately, one of glass’ biggest environmental influences (the fossil fuels required for heat) is unavoidable. A high amount of energy is still needed to melt glass down in the recycling process.
Another slight drawback is the fact that about 16% of the emissions saved by processing recycled glass are offset by the additional recycling loop transportation requirements.
Given losses throughout the recycling supply chain, some virgin materials are still required. One study even suggests that recycled glass, therefore, requires only 13% less energy, compared to virgin glass.
According to Carbon Footprint though, the net carbon savings from recycling a tonne of glass is 315kg after taking into account processing and transport. When it comes to climate change, savings like this really matter.
Here’s the real kicker: of the 12.3 million tons of glass generated in the U.S., just 31.3% are recycled (a rate that’s lower than previous years, BTW).
This is in part due to “wishcycling”, but also due to the fact that broken glass often can’t be sorted and recycled due to the liability it poses to the sorters.
Then it ends up in landfills, where it can take up to two million years to decompose.
Poor recycling rates make the environmental footprint of glass really heavy.
Speaking of heavy… The weight of glass may be the reason why many people like it but it is actually another environmental downfall.
Yes, that bottle of kombucha might look and feel great, but getting it to your local grocery store automatically requires more transportation emissions than its plastic counterpart.
Additionally, glass is more prone to breakages, making it more expensive to ship and more likely to result in wasted product.
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