Life-Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Primary Beverage Containers: Glass versus Plastic Bottles

Pollution originating from the life cycle of packaging is increasing and can have potentially irreversible consequences for the environment. In the beverage industry, the most common materials used for the production of primary packaging are glass and plastic. The objective of this study was to compare the environmental impacts of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and glass plastic bottles. The Leopold Matrix was applied to evaluate the environmental impact of the life cycle of both containers, having as a secondary source of information the result of the analysis of the systematic literature review. The results showed that both containers generate negative environmental impacts throughout their life cycle, taking into account in the evaluation the abiotic, biotic and anthropic components, generating negative consequences to ecosystems, human health, as well as fauna and flora. This is evidenced in the results of the matrix, where the total values symbolize -712 and -690 for glass and plastic, respectively.