Does Plastic or Glass Require More Energy to Recycle?
The more research that one conducts on this topic, the more the answer becomes very clear. Glass takes more energy to recycle than plastic. This is true for a number of different reasons. To understand those reasons, it is first necessary to understand that glass takes more energy to initially produce. The exact amount of energy required, of course, depends on the type of glass product being produced. A number of different factors go into this including the size of the unit, its thickness, shape and any number of other possible factors. However, once produced, glass can last considerably longer than some plastics. Glass is also not as efficiently recycled as plastic. The Glass Packaging Institute notes that recycling glass uses 66 percent of the energy it would take to manufacture new glass, on average. Plastic shows a much greater efficiency in using energy to recycle, only requiring 10 percent of the energy it takes to produce new plastic. Given that plastic, generally, uses less ene
