Are glass bottles really better for the environment than plastic?

The UK has plans to change how drinks containers are collected from consumers for recycling, but recent news stories indicate that glass could be excluded from this scheme. Laura, Antonia and Jasmin discuss what responsibilities packaging producers have, how glass and plastic are currently recycled, and consider what changes need to be made.

There were a lot of references in this fact-filled episode:

• Government target for recycling rates at gov.uk
• Amounts of litter, from Keep Britain Tidy (2020)
• Household recycling rates, from gov.uk
• Amount that a deposit return scheme can reduce littering by, from Actions to Protect Rural Scotland
• A report stating cost savings of a deposit return scheme, from DEFRA
• Statistics on local authority costs, from gov.uk
• Evidence from European Union countries on the deposit return scheme
• News article about charges that could be applied to glass bottle producers, in The Chronicle
• An overview of the Extended Producer Responsibility, from Ecoveritas
• Potential fees to be paid by companies under the extended producer responsibility scheme, suggested by UK government
• The main steps in plastic recycling using mechanical methods, from the British Plastics Federation
• The journal article Laura mentions where sorting facilities were analysed, in the journal Waste Management
• An overview of some chemical recycling method, from the British Plastics Federation
• Some more information on chemical recycling, from CAS – a division of the American Chemical Society
• Legislation on minimum recycled plastic content, from gov.uk
• The journal article Jasmin refers to when considering glass recycling rates, in the journal Sustainable Futures
• Articles explaining glass quality limitations from BBC Future and British Glass
• The energy saving by using recycled glass to make new glass bottles, from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory