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How Refilling Works

Refill Nachfüllkonzept Habit
Why 
Glass vs alu.jpg
Aluminium?
  • The great advantage of aluminum packaging is its high resistance to damage and lightweight. As a result, lowest transportation footprint and requires less fuel.
     

  • Like plastic, aluminum “disposed” without treatment (in a landfill) takes several hundred years to decompose. Unlike plastic, however, aluminum packaging is very easy to recycle. 
     

  • Each can of any color can be processed and used an unlimited number of times. At the same time, it is a much more profitable process than in the case of synthetic polymers.
     

  • Perhaps that is why aluminum cans are waste with the highest recycling percentage – in 2017, as much as 74% of them were recovered in Europe [5]. It’s proven to be the most recycled material in the world.
     

  • Aluminum has an excellent barrier function therefore keeping out air, light, liquid and microorganisms to preserve the contents of food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products.
     

  • Recycling aluminum uses 95% less energy than producing it directly from bauxite (compared to closer to about 25% energy savings for glass)

Recycling Bottles
Why not
PET
or
Glass?
  • Plastics have only up to 30% recyclability rate, not to mention that many soft plastics cannot be recycled at all.
     

  • Recyclability of plastic is dependent on its composition and the complexity of polymers involved.
     

  • Huge carbon footprint in manufacturing. Recycled plastic is more expensive than creating new. The large use of non-renewable resources.
     

  • Plastic comes from crude oil. It is a mineral, and therefore a non-renewable resource – and is heavily exploited for purposes other than the production of plastic itself. Oil extraction and processing has a very high carbon footprint (and ecological footprint in general).
     

  • Plastic stored in this way takes about 400 years to decompose and is largely shredded into a very harmful microplastic.
     

  • It is estimated that the carbon footprint of a glass bottle is on average the highest among all types of packaging.

  • Glass bottles take over 1,000,000 years to decompose
     

  • The production of glass packaging itself is very energy intensive. All because the glass, in order to form the desired shape, must be melted at a temperature of approx. 1200 C. 
     

  • Unfortunately, glass packaging is fragile and heavy. Their proper protection during transport involves the use of more cardboard (or other materials) than in the case of alternative materials. Therefore, a little less are transported at one time.
     

  • Due to their weight, they consume more fuel during transport.

“Glass bottles contributed about 95 percent more to the climate crisis than aluminum cans, the study authors noted in The Conversation. “
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