Aluminium is a recyclable metal that can be recycled into packaging. Yet, the production and recycling of aluminium requires a lot of resources. To create cans, aluminium must be heated to temperatures above 1000°C, whereas Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles require temperatures about 260°C. Higher temperatures result in higher emissions, and cans made of recycled aluminium emit more CO2 per tonne than bottles made of recycled PET.
Glass requires extremely high temperatures to be created or reconstituted from existing glass, with this process emitting up to 4.5 times the emissions produced by Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle production. Glass is also much heavier than plastic, weighing up to ten times more and resulting in a far greater carbon footprint for transportation. Because rPET - recycled PET - bottles are lighter, they emit lower transport emissions than reusable glass bottles.
