Depending on your product, you had to make a decision as to what materials you wanted to use for its packaging. You narrowed it down to two: plastic and glass.
So is there one that is better than the other? Each packaging material presents its own positives and negatives. It’s up to you to determine what is best for your particular product.
The best way to learn more is to ask your manufacturer. Glass bottle manufacturers will provide you with information about glass as will distributors who specialize in packaging for bottles, jars, and other products. The best benefits are that:
- Glass can be reused multiple times. Broken glass is recycled.
- Glass can show your product clearly: your customers can view your product easily.
- Separating and recycling glass could significantly reduce waste management costs.
- The energy required to melt recycled glass is much less than the amount needed to make new bottles and jars. One recycled bottle can save enough energy to actually power a television for 90 minutes.
- One thousand tons of recycled glass saves some 314 tons of CO2 annually.
- Eighty percent of recovered glass is made into new products.
While glass containers like those used for foods and beverages can be recycled, other types of glass like those used for ovenware, Pyrex, crystal, and windows, undergo a different manufacturing process. If your glass manufacturer introduces these materials into the manufacturing process, they can cause faulty containers as well as production issues. The cullet — glass that is crushed and ready to be remelted — that is furnace-ready has to be free from all contaminants like stones, metals, gravel, and ceramics.
The glass manufacturer also needs to sort the glass by color. They are limited in the amount of mixed cullet for the production of the new containers. As a result, separating the recycled containers by color enables them to ensure that new bottles match the colors required by glass packaging customers.
Glass does come with these multiple benefits; however, its weight is a negative point. Exercise enthusiasts such as runners, cyclists, and many others would prefer something lightweight, easy-to-carry, and shatter-proof. Enter plastic.
Plastic bottle manufacturers
When you’re considering plastic for your products, plastic bottle manufacturers will tell you about their many benefits. First of all, they are economical and inexpensive to mass produce. They provide an alternative to more expensive raw materials, so if your budget is a concern, they are the way to go.
Plastic bottles manufacturers will also explain the many benefits of this material as a packaging solution for your product. Plastic is also a relatively strong material, so they’re considered to be reliable for many different products. They have a flexible property to them as well, so they’re bend well before they break. This increases their durability.
Plastic bottle manufacturers produce container products that are much lighter than aluminum or glass. This in itself results in better fuel economy and less expense to manufacture parts. The lighter weight also provides safer material handling, and the bottles are impact- and dent-resistant, and are modified for strength. Plastic bottle manufacturers also ensure that their containers are corrosion-resistant, can have their colors and textures modified with importance on aesthetics.
Other things that plastic bottle manufacturers offer is that if you choose a U.S.-based company is that this will save you on deliveries. Overseas deliveries can be hugely expensive, and bring with them errors, delays, and other problems.
When you’re selecting plastic bottle manufacturers, be aware of these:
- There can be significantly large delivery distances if you decide to place an order from countries half way around the world. This can mean deliveries that run weeks late when compared with using a U.S.-based manufacturer.
- Think of this equation for your shipping:
Faster shipping + Faster delivery = Faster sales for you - Check with your plastic bottle manufacturers to see if they are part of a wider network of partners.
Choosing the right glass and plastic bottles for your products can be difficult and vital to your branding. MJS Packaging offers the best customer service and lowest prices for your pharmaceutical product packaging. We have exclusive access to manufacturers from all around the world, so we can advise you on the best bottles, tubes, closures, caps, and other packaging needs you require.
