Better economic value to the environment? Bottles vs Cans.?

Question

This has to do with drinks of all kinds. This isn't a simple question either. 1 liter PET vs 12 12oz cans.

Considering the actual economic value of the capitol used to produce bottles and cans, the environmental harm caused by creating a new bottle or can, and considering this item will be recycled, which is a better actual value? Price has no object here, just actual value.

This question is concerning the cost of oil vs metal, energy used for creation and recycling. That added with the environmental cost of refining that item into its final character plus the environmental cost of extracting those. Obviously oil is more scarce of a resource and is recycled far less in comparison to aluminum. Plus the fact oil is now at an all time high for cost per barrel.

Don't tell me recycling is good or give me some half answer. This is a very complicated question, I just hope there are some environmental economists out there.

Maybe I wasn't specific enough, they don't give you a ton of room to ask a question. By "price" I meant store price. I didn't want people to take into account the cost of purchase at the store. I wanted to know the economic value of the packaging, not the product. i.e. the bottle not the pop in it.

Also, when I said "no half answers" I meant I don't want people just saying things like "recycling is good" or "I think this one is better" and not giving a solid reason why. It's all too common on here to get a bunch of answers that don't really answer anything.

Additionally, if you read the title... this is about PET bottles vs cans. I don't take into account glass or paper because they aren't widely used as packaging materials. Not like plastics or aluminum. This is largely in reference to soda and somewhat juices or other similar drinks. Not taking into account milk or other juices in the refrigerated section that are packaged in paper and not taking into account bottles which are used mostly for alcoholic beverages. My main purchase is for soda so that's more of what this is pertaining to.

Answer 1

Yes, this is a complicated question, but it is clear from your comment that "price has no object here, just actual value" that you don't understand what you are asking. And your parting remark, "[don't] give me some half answer" confirms that.

The fundamental issue is that there is not just one resource at issue here but multiple resources. So if one approach uses more of A and less of B than another, you have to compare the value of A and B to determine which approach is better. If you are not going to use price, how are you going to compare? If you are going to use, which prices should you use?

Economists have wrestled with this for decades with no clear answer. And, of course, the problem gets much harder when there are more than 2 resources involved.

Just for some examples of issues that have to be dealt with:

1. Glass bottles take less energy to make than aluminum, and don't require oil at all, but are heavier and entail higher transportation costs. The transportation costs aren't important if the bottles aren't transported far.

Also, it used to be that glass was heavily recycled - I remember when milk came in glass bottles that were actually reused - but no longer. Do we take the theoretical capability (reuse after cleaning)? the current recycling practice (remelting - taking more energy), or current practice (very few glass bottles actually getting recycled?

Bear in mind that glass is essentially inert - it doesn't degrade but it doesn't poison the environment either.

The fact that you didn't even mention glass is an indication of current mind-set. Most consumers don't particularly like it for larger volumes, because of its weight and fragility. Ditto for producers. How do we factor that into the equation?

2. Aluminum cans take a great deal of electricity to produce, even when recycling is taken into account. So much so, that all the aluminum refineries are near hydro-power plants - electricity from fossil fuels is just too expensive. How do you trade off all that energy with the fact that it comes from renewable sources?

On the one hand, if that electricity weren't used to produce aluminum, some of it, at least, could be used to replace electricity produced from coal.

On the other hand, it is much cleaner energy than coal or oil.


3. Another material you haven't considered is paper. It doesn't work well for gallons of milk, but it clearly does work for half-gallons and quarts so it should work for juice and other fruit drinks even it doesn't work for carbonated beverages.

Yet while orange and grapefruit juices come in paper, very few other drinks do.