Spring Break
Glass is the clear choice for recycling
Cate Marquis
Issue date: 8/27/07 Section: Opinions
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What if the grocery bag question "paper or plastic" could be expanded to include a "glass or plastic" choice for food jars?
Of course, the answer to the grocery store question is "neither." Consumers should bring their own reusable cloth bag. Re-using and recycling are both important parts of limiting waste of resources and energy.
With public attention on global warming, the issue of recycling has resurfaced as well. Let us take a look at a comparison of two choices for food containers: plastic or glass.
Pre-plastic and even up until very recently, glass was a very common container in stores. Now, clear jars on the shelf are more likely to be plastic than glass. There are a number of reasons why we might want to rethink that trend but here are a few: recycling, safety and energy consumption.
Glass containers are an often overlooked recycling choice. Most clear food jars and beverage bottles in grocery stores were once made of glass. Glass is a natural product, made from an abundant, cheap material - essentially, sand - which has some admirable properties.
It is non-reactive with food, stores food safely, cleans easily and can be sterilized. It can be easily reused and recycled because of its durable nature. In the lab, glass is used to store strong acids, because it is so resistant to corrosion.
Two reasons are often given for the replacement of glass with plastic in food containers: safety and shipping. The danger of broken glass is often cited as a reason to shift to "safer" plastic.
Glass does break, something also true of brittle forms of plastic, and glass can cut, but the image of consumer carnage often evoked in arguing for a switch to plastic ignores that glass jars were rarely a major hazard in pre-plastic times. Reasonable care and careful clean-up, in the case of an accident, takes care of sharp bits.
Plastic may not be as safe as one might think, although for a different reason. There is another concern with plastics in our environment: growing scientific evidence that points to concerns over health effects and the pervasiveness of plastics in our bodies and our environment.
Of course, the answer to the grocery store question is "neither." Consumers should bring their own reusable cloth bag. Re-using and recycling are both important parts of limiting waste of resources and energy.
With public attention on global warming, the issue of recycling has resurfaced as well. Let us take a look at a comparison of two choices for food containers: plastic or glass.
Pre-plastic and even up until very recently, glass was a very common container in stores. Now, clear jars on the shelf are more likely to be plastic than glass. There are a number of reasons why we might want to rethink that trend but here are a few: recycling, safety and energy consumption.
Glass containers are an often overlooked recycling choice. Most clear food jars and beverage bottles in grocery stores were once made of glass. Glass is a natural product, made from an abundant, cheap material - essentially, sand - which has some admirable properties.
It is non-reactive with food, stores food safely, cleans easily and can be sterilized. It can be easily reused and recycled because of its durable nature. In the lab, glass is used to store strong acids, because it is so resistant to corrosion.
Two reasons are often given for the replacement of glass with plastic in food containers: safety and shipping. The danger of broken glass is often cited as a reason to shift to "safer" plastic.
Glass does break, something also true of brittle forms of plastic, and glass can cut, but the image of consumer carnage often evoked in arguing for a switch to plastic ignores that glass jars were rarely a major hazard in pre-plastic times. Reasonable care and careful clean-up, in the case of an accident, takes care of sharp bits.
Plastic may not be as safe as one might think, although for a different reason. There is another concern with plastics in our environment: growing scientific evidence that points to concerns over health effects and the pervasiveness of plastics in our bodies and our environment.
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