Nearly 60% of consumers believe glass packaging is “best suited to a healthy lifestyle.”1

Consumers know glass is best for preserving the shelf life of products (76.1%) compared to plastic (6.2%) or metal (17.7%).4

Glass is the only packaging material that:

  • is 100% pure, protecting products within
  • will not leach chemicals into food when heated
  • can be recycled endlessly from bottle-to-bottle

Good Packaging Should be Safe to Heat for its Contents

Consumers are becoming more aware that heating or microwaving foods in plastic containers, and other containers lined with plastic, may have serious health implications. Recent reports suggest that endocrine disruptors may leach into the contents of bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyethylene terephthalate is the main ingredient in most clear plastic containers used for beverages and condiments worldwide. According to Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, temperature appears to influence the leaching both of phthalates and of antimony from polyethylene terephthalate, with greater leaching at higher temperatures.2

Thus, one must address how food products may interact with polyethylene terephthalate packaging material during the hot-filling process. Since some food is packed in a plastic container before high-pressure, heat processing—which can reach boiling hot temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit—certain foods have already reached elevated temperatures in contact with the container in the filling process that far exceed temperatures found when microwaving foods. The plastic and the food product contained within may also remain at elevated temperatures for some time after filling. This may alter the packaging structure and consequently its mechanical and mass transfer (barrier and migration) properties as well, posing a potential health concern.3

Good Packaging Should be 100 percent Pure, Protecting Products Within

Fact: 69% of consumers believe glass containers are safest to use in a microwave.4

Made from nontoxic raw materials—sand, soda ash, limestone, and up to 70 percent recycled glass or “cullet”—glass is the only packaging material accepted by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration as “generally recognized as safe”. Glass has an almost zero rate of chemical interaction, ensuring that the products inside a glass bottle keep their strength, aroma, and flavor. Glass does not deteriorate, corrode, stain or fade, so products inside a glass container remain as fresh as when they were bottled. Glass packaging gives people confidence that their food is pure.

Good Packaging Should be Endlessly Recyclable in a Closed-Loop System

Recycling glass containers provides for unmatched production efficiencies and significant environmental benefits:

  • No processing by-products: Glass recycling is a closed-loop or bottle-to-bottle system, creating no additional waste or by-products.
  • Saves raw materials: Over a ton of natural resources are conserved for every ton of glass recycled.
  • Lessens the demand for energy: Energy costs drop about 2 - 3 percent for every 10 percent cullet used in the manufacturing process.
  • Cuts CO2 emissions: For every 6 tons of recycled container glass used, a ton of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is reduced. A relative 10 percent increase in cullet reduces particulates by 8 percent, nitrogen oxide by 4 percent, and sulfur oxides by 10 percent.

The glass container industry set an ambitious goal to use 50 percent recycled content in the manufacture of new glass bottles and jars by the end of 2013, which will make glass bottles even more sustainable.

For more information, visit gpi.org

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1 Surveys of 750 Americans were conducted by telephone in April and July 2009 by Newton Marketing Research, Norman, Oklahoma, in conjunction with Doyle Yoon, PhD, a Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at Gaylord College, University of Oklahoma. The surveys have a margin of error of +/- 3.7%.

2 Sax, L. (2009). Polyethylene Terephthalate May Yield Endocrine Disrupters. Environmental Health Perspectives online (http://dx.doi.org).

3 Mauricio-Iglesias, M., Jansana, S., Peyron, S., Gontard, N. & Guillard, V. (2010). First published on: 29 September 2009. Effect of highpressure/temperature (HP/T) treatments of in-package food on additive migration from conventional and bio-sourced materials. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A, 27: 1, 118 — 127.

4 A survey of 1000 Americans was conducted by telephone from April 15 - 18, 2010 by Opinion Research, with a margin of error of +/- 5% (survey facts).