SILGAN Plastics — Plastic Bottle Facts

Site Navigation

Plastic Bottle Facts

Without plastics, the energy used to produce packaging would double. By using plastics rather than its alternatives, American manufacturers save more than 330 Btu which is equivalent to 58 million barrels of oil
The energy saved by recycling
a one-gallon plastic milk jug
will keep a 100-watt bulb
burning for 11 hours
You could carry home
1,000 oz of soda in 2 lbs of
plastic packaging, but it would take 27 lbs of glass, 8 lbs of steel or 3 lbs of aluminum to do the same job
By weight, plastic packaging makes up less than 4% of discarded products in the municipal waste stream

More than 2,000 police officers have been saved through the
use of protective vests made with plastic materials
Recycled plastic packaging can be used for a multitude of
purposes: new packaging, fiber fill for winter clothing, fleece
jackets, t-shirts, carpet materials, building materials,
drainage pipes, plastic lumber, strapping products, sheet
films

The use of plastics in aseptic packaging significantly increase the non-refrigerated shelf life and availability of many perishable products, making them more readily available to the developing nations of the world and dramatically increasing the diets of the people who live there
Plastic jars can use up to approximately 90% less material by weight than their glass counterparts and 38% less than similarly sized steel cans
Continuous innovation improvements continue to allow for further light weighting opportunities. Today’s 2 liter plastic beverage bottle and 1 gallon milk jug weigh approximately 33% less than they did in the 1970s