Are aluminum drink cans better than plastic water bottles?

Are you wondering if you should buy drinks that are packed in aluminum cans or in PET bottles?

It depends on which country you are from and how the recycling rate is like for the packaging involved.  Recycling agents in Malaysia would rather take aluminium cans over plastic as one lorry load of aluminium cans earns more than one lorry load of PET bottles.

I read this article posted on July 20, 2019 by TAPP Water:

Glass vs plastic vs aluminium – what is the most sustainable choice?

This is what it reported:

% recovered for recycling in USA
Glass 80%
ALUMINIUM 45%
PLASTIC (PET) 9.5%

Though the recycling rate in reported is 80% for glass bottle, in Malaysia I am not able to find recycling agents for them.

If you read the report, "Disposable Drinking Bottles- Plastic vs. Glass vs. Aluminum" from Macquarie University in Australia website, the recycling rate is different:

Average Amount Currently Recycled reported in Australia
GLASS 50%
ALUMINIUM 50%
PLASTIC (PET) 60%

Maybe it is easier to make a decision based on your views from this report extracted from the report posted at TAPP Water:

Time to decompose
Glass bottle 1 million years*
Single use plastic 400 years
Carton Never**
Aluminium can 100-400 years

Decomposition residue
Glass bottle - Glass
Single use plastic - Microplastics
Carton - Some microplastics
Aluminium can - Metal scrap

How do you stop microplastics from polluting the environment?  Based on this, I would rather choose aluminium over PET bottles.

If you still cannot make up your own mind on it, read what "The Aluminum Association" has to say about it.

Extracted:
"Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

Infinitely recyclable and highly durable, nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. Aluminum is 100 percent recyclable and retains its properties indefinitely. Aluminum is one of the only materials in the consumer disposal stream that more than pays for the cost of its own collection."

Note: Though carton is reported not to decompose and there are microplastics residue when they decomposed, if you google "Tetrapak gets recycled into roof sheets" you can read about their efforts with with local charity in Thailand to turn recycled cartons into roofing sheets to provide emergency shelter for people in need.

See how Tetrapak  is recycled in India to benefit the public.


Tetrapak is working on raising awareness that their cartons can be recycled.  I think that children in school should be taught during their art and craft class lessons on how they can extract paper out of cartons as shown in this video.