Look & Image: Glass bottles and jars always convey quality and sustainability. Clear glass looks modern and minimalistic, brown or amber glass feels professional and trendy; opal glass is a distinctly premium choice; frosted/matte glass is elegant and soft to the touch.
Area of application: Wide range of use. Glass is mostly inert and doesn’t react with ingredients, which is especially important when essential oils or highly active substances such as in pharmaceutical solutions and cosmetic serums are to be stored. Brown and opal glass also provide optimal protection against UV radiation and improve shelf life.
Cost: Clear and brown glass are relatively inexpensive, opal glass is considerably more pricey. Frost/milk glass effects are achieved by acid treatment and are also more cost-intensive due to the additional work step.
Production: Requiring lots of natural resources, soda, lime and quartz sand are combined to make glass at high temperatures (1600°). Used glass is melted down again. Frosted or milk glass are treated with acids, which is less environmentally friendly.
Transport/shipping: Glass is fragile and heavy, requiring complex packaging (on average 15 times heavier than equivalent plastic packaging and it’s much more voluminous), which increases transportation costs.
Recycling: Glass can be melted down and recycled several times and requires slightly less energy to do so than during primary production. Generally, the recycling rate of glass in Europe is good, but the cleaning and filtering of contaminants before remelting is costly. Lids, pumps and closures are usually made of plastics or metal, making recycling more complex than with mono materials. Consumers often are unaware that crystal, window, car and laboratory glass do not belong in waste glass containers, having to be sorted out laboriously.
Glass bottle return/refill systems, as in the beverage sector, are sustainable, but so far not viable for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
(Life cycle) Assessment: The difference between refillable and recycled glass is crucial here.
Pros: Good recyclability, microbiologically flawless and in some cases even improves product shelf life; high-quality and attractive, good image, very sustainable as refillable glass. Cons: The sand needed for glass production is currently in short supply due to its use in many other industries and is not an "infinite raw material". Taking into account all production steps, transport and collection, single use and even recycled glass require a lot of energy and cause comparatively high greenhouse gas emissions. Frosting effects are also not sustainable.
Glass for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals have a better eco footprint because of their life cycle, usually remaining with consumers for longer periods of time.
Sources: Federal Environment Agency Germany, Federal Office for the Environment Switzerland, Deutsche Handwerkszeitung, Federal Association of Consumer Centres
You can also download the key facts about all materials here: