One product that I tend to use a lot of is San Pellegrino sparkling water. I always get the glass bottle and have found the process of making glass bottles quite interesting. To create glass manufacturers use sand, soda ash, limestone and other natural properties. This process uses much fewer fossil fuels than their plastic bottle counterparts. The glass is heated up by thousands of degrees and then molded to form a bottle shape. Air is then blown into them to create a cavity which will become the inside of the bottle. There are multiple processes by which glass is manufactured. These processes include Blow & Blow Process, Press & Blow Process, Danner Process, and Vello Process. I tend to reuse my glass bottle throughout the day. After I drink the sparkling water, I simply refill it with regular water. This is beneficial in the sense that I am not using plastic instead I am re-using my water bottle before recycling it. At the end of its functional life, the glass bottle should be recycled. This is one of the largest benefits of glass is that it is one hundred percent recyclable. It can be sent off to aid in creating more glass. But more and more I see the use of glass in all sorts of creative ways. Whether it be for art, decoration, or simply used around the house; the use of glass as opposed to plastic bottles is becoming increasingly popular. Another reason glass bottles are better than plastic is that they are free of bisphenol-A more commonly known as BPA. Aside from the more obvious benefits of glass bottles, there are some that may not be as obvious. Using glass bottles as opposed to plastic contain carbonation longer, therefore, increasing the shelf life of products. If this is done then there is much less waste since the product outlasts the plastic competition. Glass should not be reduced but increased. The replacement of plastic with glass would reduce so much of our waste and fossil fuel emissions. I see that as more and more people are striving for more sustainable ways of living, glass will work its way back into everyone’s lives. The idea of glass water, soda, and milk are becoming less of a thing of the past and more of an aspiration for today and tomorrow. Something that I would personally love to see in my lifetime is the return of a milkman. While that might sound silly at first I think the return of local business fueling the nation would not only reduce industrialized farming but also cut out the plastics used in the creation of milk jugs. I always assumed that glass was better than plastic but I was just unsure of the extent of it. After researching this I found exactly how sustainable glass really is. While plastic bottles and plastic, in general, is recyclable, not all of it can be used. This is not the case for San Pellegrino lime bottle glass. All of it is recyclable and aiding in a better tomorrow.

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(n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.qorpak.com/pages/glassbottlemanufacturingprocess