Comparing the carbon footprints of beverage containers

This factsheet presents findings from a recent Ball study into the carbon footprint of packaging materials.

Ball recently hired leading sustainability consultants Sphera (for USA, Europe and Brazil) and The Energy and Resources Institute (for India) to conduct a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA assessing the environmental performance of single-use and small to medium-sized beverage containers. For India and Brazil, re-useable glass bottles were also included.

This factsheet extracts findings for the carbon footprint of these packaging materials. The results reveal that aluminium and PET containers have far lower carbon footprints than single-use glass for carbonated (fizzy) drinks.