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The choice of material for your packaging defines the sustainability of your product. A dilemma faced by many companies face when it comes to product packaging is the choice between plastic or glass.

As an environmentally responsible company, we’ve thought a lot about choosing the right packaging material for our product. After conducting research, we finally decided to use food-grade plastic packaging for our product instead.

Here’s why:

Plastic is Light in Weight:

Glass is way heavier than plastic. This means that you require more trips when it comes to transporting the packaged products. You also need extra packaging material in the form of polystyrene foam (thermocol) cushions for the safety of glass bottles during transit. This makes transportation expensive, leads to more waste and garbage, and causes a greater environmental impact.

Comparatively, plastic is lighter, durable, and leaves a smaller carbon footprint from transportation as you will require fewer trips and less packaging material. This is one of the reasons why we concluded that plastic was a better choice for packaging.

Plastic is Safe and Durable

Glass is extremely fragile and prone to shattering, which can be potentially dangerous. A glass bottle that is accidentally knocked off the table will not only shatter but the entire quantity of oil will also be wasted. Handling glass can be a risk during manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and even for the customer.

On the other hand, plastic is relatively safer, more durable, and resistant to shattering. Plastic bottles will not break when they are accidentally dropped or knocked over. While there are concerns about chemicals in plastic seeping into the product, the plastic that Muhana uses for its cold pressed oils bottles is food-grade, green, and clean, making it a safer packaging choice with no risk to health.

Plastic is easy to Recycle:

A glass bottle takes around 1 million years to decompose. On the contrary, plastic takes 450 years. While both plastic and glass are recyclable, glass has limited options and can only be turned into another glass object. On the other hand, plastic can be recycled into a wide range of products.

Muhana strongly supports recycling and believes in taking actions make a positive impact on the environment. Hence, we use recyclable food-grade plastic bottles for our cold pressed oils and encourage you to recycle them.

Plastic has a Lower Environmental Footprint:

Glass is made from natural resources, mainly sand, which is taken from the seashores, oceans, and riverbeds. However, this sand is extracted way faster than the nature can replenish in time. This causes erosion, imbalance in the ecosystem, and also leaves coastal communities at a higher risk of flooding. The greenhouse gases released from the glass-making furnace, along with the transportation requirements, also have significant environmental impact.

Plastic packaging leaves a smaller carbon footprint than glass at every step of the way – from manufacturing to delivery. Transporting plastic is also faster and releases less emissions compared to glass since there are fewer trips involved.

Takeaway:

Choosing between glass and plastic required a lot of deliberation and discussion. Although glass is thought of as a ‘greener’ option, we realised that plastic is fine to use as long as its wastage is reduced. By making our bottles light-weight, durable, and recyclable, we’re reducing our environmental impact while also ensuring that good health is more easily accessible to you.