Key finding

PET bottles vs. Glass

A glass bottle may be cheaper to produce than a PET bottle

Transportation costs are a different story: a glass bottle may be more than 10 times heavier than a plastic bottle, with the heavier glass bottles needing 40% more energy to transport, at a cost up to five times higher than plastic bottles. This means that a single-use plastic bottle may turn out to be a more economical and less environmentally costly option than a single-use glass bottle (though single-use is never the ideal).