Especially the long-suffering father of a family notices the difference in weight of the water crates when he goes shopping for his weekly drinks. So which is better - a plastic bottle or a glass bottle?

The advantage of water from plastic bottles when living with children:

• They cannot injure themselves on broken glass. Due to these advantages, many consumers like to use single-use or reusable plastic bottles to supply water at home, at work, or on the go.
• The 25-cent bottle deposit plays a minor role for most consumers when choosing a product. But all of these recycling processes require a lot of logistics, transport, processing, and a good deal of new plastic to be added.

Is reusable better than disposable?

The reusable plastic bottles from major beverage manufacturers, which can be bought in crates at the beverage store, are also popular because they do not weigh as much as their glass counterparts.

• They also score points for their greater stability.
• The disadvantage of reusable bottles is the limited return options. The bottles can only be returned to beverage retailers. From there they are taken back to the beverage manufacturer, cleaned, and refilled.
• Depending on the distance between the consumer and the manufacturer, the ecological advantage compared to the disposable variant shrinks, as the reusable cycle is very energy-intensive.
• For the customer, the product in the reusable container is often expensive because the manufacturers pass on the costs of the reusable cycle.

 But when it comes to reusable bottles, is the plastic or glass bottle better?

The glass bottle is an alternative

Yes, glass bottles are heavy, fragile and it is hardly worth transporting them over long distances. Some manufacturers now also offer small glass bottles with a capacity of 0.5 l, but often without a screw cap.

• From an ecological point of view, you should therefore prefer a regional product to Australia This applies above all to reusable glass systems. However, transport routes can be shortened, particularly with standard bottles (pool system).
• In its reusable guide, NABU recommends the plastic version because of the ecological balance.
• A major advantage of water from glass bottles is that glass does not impart any taste. Some consumers are bothered by a change in the taste of water from plastic bottles.

 Brave new plastic world

Health aspects are also playing an increasingly important role in the decision between a plastic bottle and a glass bottle. The plastic bottle is hardly more practical than the plastic bottle. A disposable PET bottle is often refilled, perhaps with warm tea or acidic drinks such as lemonade or cola.

• However, plastic opponents have long warned against the use of disposable or reusable plastic bottles, especially for carbonated water, and recommend the use of glass bottles.
• Softer disposable plastics in particular contain more plasticizers, which are suspected of migrating into food and causing changes in the body.
• Carbonic acid is said to promote the release of harmful substances from the plastic.
• Plasticizers are contained in every form of plastic, the harder and more rigid the material, the less there are. Without these substances, the plastic would crumble and would not have such versatile properties.

From a health perspective, the recommendation is clearly in favor of drinking water from glass bottles. But if you think you're safe here, you're not counting on the lid: although there are glass water bottle with metal lids on the market, they contain a small rubber coating made of soft plastic inside, which contains more plasticizer than screw caps made of hard plastic. So what should you do if you don't always want to pour still tap water directly into your drinking glass?

 You can’t do without carbonation?

The manufacturers of water carbonators promise a cost-effective and inexpensive solution for obtaining carbonated water. The CO2 cartridge is exchanged for a refilled gas bottle at the drinks retailer and in many other shops and is designed to carbonate up to 60 liters of carbonated drinks per filling. However , hygiene in the water carbonator should always be guaranteed. Whether plastic bottles or glass bottles are screwed into the carbonator then depends only on the model and personal taste.