There is a bit of a balancing act going on. If bottles moved to glass, that would increase weight and CO2. If they moved to more cans, that’s still plastic due to the liners.
Also, how much would that increase CO2 emissions in the worst case? Plastic pollution and climate change are separate problems. If we are solving plastic pollution effectively, wouldn't it be worth a hypothetical .5% increase in global CO2 ?
I’d like to see standard glass bottles that are universally reusable and washable, but there are claims it’s more energy to wash than to make new (which I suspect is funny accounting).
> Glass bottles compose nearly one-third of all beer volume in the United States and nearly two-thirds of above premium segment volume.
I think the "premium" is what I'm noticing; I kind of ignore all the large packs of aluminum beer cans (though to be honest that's the only beer I have on hand right now).
What I have very rarely seen is plastic beer - only at stadiums where they don't want you throwing the bottle at the players, basically.
Of course, the only proper beer container is a giant keg.
It explains why plastic is so favored, but it’s also depressing, as I consider branding mostly zero-sum.
But to follow your reasoning, do you have any data on the CO2 emissions of extracting, transporting and transforming crude oil into PET bottles, versus some 30% added weight to a delivery truck?
I would imagine glass bottles also take more space though, so still I guess there might be more traffic.
And even those loaded by volume could probably go to glass without hitting weight limits.
And if the result is more local bottling plants, that’s even better.