An example: the beauty industry is moving towards the refillable model.
Using glass as a "host" container for instance, and plastic as a removable refill.
Glass manufacturers and recyclers are warning us against the over use of glass in the refill model, since it means that there will be less glass in circulation in the market for recycling.
Since glass will be kept by consumers.Glass is the most recycled materials today. Beer or wine makers tend to use 100% recycled glass since it's dark, or brown or green, when beauty and personal care tend to use virgin glass or recycled up to a lower percentage to keep a higher quality finish.
Since there will be less glass in circulation, the quality will lower and the price will increase. Not to mention the higher carbon footprint when manufacturing virgin glass compared to recycled glass.
So what do we do? When thinking about sustainability and product development there is NO SIMPLE ANSWER, you see!
Moving to aluminium or other materials won't necessarily fix this... We need to consider the FULL impact when switching to greener products!
Using glass as a "host" container for instance, and plastic as a removable refill.
Glass manufacturers and recyclers are warning us against the over use of glass in the refill model, since it means that there will be less glass in circulation in the market for recycling.
Since glass will be kept by consumers.Glass is the most recycled materials today. Beer or wine makers tend to use 100% recycled glass since it's dark, or brown or green, when beauty and personal care tend to use virgin glass or recycled up to a lower percentage to keep a higher quality finish.
Since there will be less glass in circulation, the quality will lower and the price will increase. Not to mention the higher carbon footprint when manufacturing virgin glass compared to recycled glass.
So what do we do? When thinking about sustainability and product development there is NO SIMPLE ANSWER, you see!
Moving to aluminium or other materials won't necessarily fix this... We need to consider the FULL impact when switching to greener products!
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