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Choose glass, for what matters
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Glass helps protect the original taste and quality of food and drinks.
- Its highly inert nature keeps interaction with the product to a minimum.
- Once collected and sorted, used glass can become raw material for new bottles and jars.
- From everyday food to perfume and pharmaceuticals, glass works across a wide range of products and experiences.
A jar of pasta sauce. A bottle of juice. A favourite perfume. Glass is already part of plenty of everyday moments.
But there is more to it than good looks. Glass protects taste, is highly inert, works well in recycling loops and gives brands plenty of room to create packaging with personality.
What is glass made of?
Container glass starts with a simple mix of ingredients, including silica sand, soda ash and limestone. Recycled glass, known as cullet, is also an important raw material used to make new bottles and jars.
Once melted together at high temperature, these ingredients form the glass we see around us every day.
Source: Marsh & Bugusu, Food Packaging: Roles, Materials, and Environmental Issues, Journal of Food Science, 2007 – Read the scientific paper
Three reasons to choose glass
Some recipes deserve to taste exactly as intended.
Glass is odourless and chemically inert with virtually all food products. It also provides a strong barrier to gases and vapours. These properties help protect freshness without adding a taste or smell of its own.
For wine, juice, sauces, preserves and plenty more, the packaging can do its job without getting in the way of what is inside.
Source: Marsh & Bugusu, Food Packaging: Roles, Materials, and Environmental Issues, Journal of Food Science, 2007 – Read the scientific paper
Glass has a feel of
its own
Packaging is also part of how we experience a product. Think of the weight of a perfume bottle in your hand, a jar opening in the kitchen or the familiar sound of glasses coming together around a table.
Shape, colour, transparency and decoration give designers plenty to play with too. Sometimes the container becomes almost as recognisable as what is inside.
Glass marks the moments that matter.
It might be an everyday ritual or something worth celebrating. Either way, glass has a knack for being part of the moment.
A material with a long memory
Glassmaking has been part of human craft and culture for millennia.
Techniques have changed enormously along the way, from early hand-shaped vessels and Roman glassblowing to Venetian craftsmanship and industrial bottle production. Yet bottles, jars and flacons remain familiar objects today.
That long history is part of their appeal. Glass can feel contemporary without losing the sense of craft that comes with it.
One material, many containers
BOTTLES AND JARS
Beer, juice, wine, sauces, jams and pickles all ask different things of their packaging.
Glass bottles and jars provide a strong barrier to gases and vapours, while transparent glass lets you see the product inside. Different glass colours can also be used when products need greater protection from light.
Source: Marsh & Bugusu, Food Packaging: Roles, Materials, and Environmental Issues, Journal of Food Science, 2007 – Read the scientific paper
FLACONS AND VIALS
For perfume and skincare, the container is often part of the product identity. Shape, colour and decoration can turn a flacon into something instantly recognisable.
Glass also has an established role in pharmaceutical packaging. Type I glass, in particular, is widely used for parenteral products because of its chemical resistance and inert characteristics.
Source: Zhao et al., Quality attributes and evaluation of pharmaceutical glass containers for parenterals, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2019 – Read the scientific paper
AT HOME
Finished that jar? Sort it according to your local recycling rules, or give a suitable container another use at home.
ON THE MOVE
For drinks on the go, choose a reusable glass bottle or cup designed for the job and keep it in circulation.
AT THE SHOPS
Food, drinks, skincare or gifts: packaging can be one more thing to consider when choosing between products.
A small choice you make often
Choosing packaging is rarely the only thing on your mind when you shop. But it is a choice you make again and again.
Glass gives you some clear reasons to notice it. It respects taste, keeps chemical interaction low, can return to the recycling loop and gives products an identity that is easy to see and feel.
And when the last drop, spoonful or spray is gone, the story does not have to end there.
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