Olive Oil’s Packaging Puzzle: Glass or Plastic? | Sustainable Brands

Long shipping routes, rising fuel and transportation costs, and concerns aboutthe carbon footprint of food supply chains have driven many companies toreconsider their packaging options for greater efficiency.

Thanks to their rich farming history and cultural preference for this healthyingredient, North African and South European regions are responsible forabout 80 percent of the world's olive oil production. Spain, Italy,Greece, Tunisia, Portugal and Morocco are among the largestproducers and distributors of this well-known oil that is appreciated globallyand is central to the Mediterranean diet — which comprises over 20 diversenational and regional cuisines.

Despite its growth in the last decade, California’s growing olive oilproduction currently cannot meet the high internal demand from NorthAmerican restaurants, retail stores and households. Almost all the olive oilsconsumed in the US are imported from overseas — by air or ocean freight.

Long shipping routes, rising fuel and transportation costs, and concerns aboutthe carbon footprint of the food supply chain have driven many companies toreconsider their packaging options for greater efficiency.

Different materials have varying performance characteristics — including weight,fracture resistance, energy requirements for production and molding in thecountry of origin, and recyclability in the country of destination at the end oftheir lifecycle.

Join us as Aleph Farms, the Better Meat Co, the Good Food Institute and Plantible Foods discuss the latest advancements in cultivated, plant-based, and fermentation-derived proteins — and how incorporating alternative proteins can help brands significantly reduce environmental impacts, while conserving natural resources — Tuesday, Oct. 15 at SB'24 San Diego.

Balancing the footprint of the packaging vs. the energy spent for its transportinvolves addressing various factors.

Globally, the most common packaging materials used for extra virgin oliveoil (EVOO) available in retail today include:

Glass bottles: Glass is an excellent material for EVOO due to itsimpermeable and inert nature, which effectively preserves the oil's quality.It is commonly found in 250ml, 500ml and 1L formats, and has goodrecyclability potential. However, it is generally more expensive, subject tofracture, is substantially heavier than other options, and requires highenergy inputs to produce and recycle.

Plastic bottles: Certain high-quality, hard plastics — such as PET(Polyethylene Terephthalate) — are widely used for packaging EVOO as analternative to glass. These plastics are selected for their relatively goodbarrier properties, resistance to mechanical stress, flexibility, lightweight and cost; PET also has good recyclabilitypotential.It’s important to note that not all plastics are the same. Soft plastics andlower-quality materials have shown potential chemical interactions withtheir contents and air permeability.

Tin cans: Tin or metal cans are popular for larger formats (3 to 5liters). They provide excellent protection from light and air, ensuring theoil remains fresh for a longer period. Additionally, they are lightweightand durable.

Bag-in-box systems: A plastic bag is placed within a cardboard box; andas oil is dispensed, the bag collapses to minimize contact with air. Thispackaging method is gainingpopularityfor oils and other liquid products because it preserves freshness and ispractical for handling larger quantities.

Ceramic bottles: Ceramic bottles are used less frequently but are valuedfor their excellent light-blocking properties and aesthetic appeal. They areoften used for premium products.

PET and glass are the predominant materials utilized for packaging olive oil onretail shelves in the US today.

But which one is better? The answer varies based on numerous factors.

Plastic, typically derived from fossil fuels, has a significant carbonimpact;whereas glass production isenergy-intensive.However, plastic's lighter weight reduces carbon emissions during transportation— which is crucial for products such as olive oil, which is often shipped overlong distances.

Regarding end-of-life considerations, glass is easily recyclable — but recyclingcan be energy-intensive. Consumer recycling rates for both plastic and glassolive oil containers are unclear. When the bottles aren’t recycled, the carbonfootprint of olive oil shipped in plastic from over 250 miles would be lowerthan that in glass.

A 2014 study on the lifecycle assessment of beverage packaging — where 5 millionbottles of 0.75-LGDBglass to 1-L Petcycle PET (100 percent recyclate)were transported an average of 500 km in Germany — made the followingconclusions:

From an environmental point of view, reusable glass bottles are as good asPET bottles — as long as the transport distances are not longer thanaverage.

Glass’ excellent suitability for reusability is offset by a relatively highweight with correspondingly lower transportability.

A 2022 McKinseyreporton plastic indicates that the environmental performance of PET, aluminum andglass varies by region. PET bottles have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions inthe United States. While aluminum production uses a high share of hydropower inthe US and Europe due to their reliance on coal from China, aluminum canshave lower GHG emissions in Western Europe due to cleaner energysourcesand higher recycling rates. Glass bottles still have the highest emissionsglobally, primarily due to varying energy sources in production.

According to the Environmental ProtectionAgency(EPA), the recycling rate for glass containers in the US was about 31.1percent in 2018; in Europe, the average rate in 2019 was approximately 78percent. Some European countriesachieve recycling rates above 90 percent.

The EPA says the recycling rate for PET bottles and jars in the US was 29.1percent in 2018 — in Europe that year, it was around 58.2percent.

ClimatePartner conducted a detailed analysisof the carbon footprint of the packaging material for BellucciEVOO — a premium extra virgin olive oil producedby Certified Origins andbottled in glass in Italy.

The company calculated the Product Carbon Footprint of the most popularItalian Bellucci EVOO[^1] product lines, following the Greenhouse Gas ProtocolProduct Life Cycle Standard — whichencompasses the total lifecycle emissions from olive cultivation, harvesting andoil extraction; bottling and packaging; upstream and downstream transportation;and end-of-life package disposal.

In this case, most of the carbon footprint was attributed to the raw materials(72 percent) — particularly, the agriculturalprocesses.Operational emissions accounted for only 7 percent, while logistics andend-of-life disposal contributed 21 percent.

In other cases, in today’s globalized food supply chains, emissions fromtransportation and logistics can exceed operational and production emissions.Producers, retailers and distributors must collaborate and play a leading rolein driving sustainable change by optimizing their operations, educating thepublic, adopting innovative practices and encouraging other stakeholders tofollow suit.

Lightweighting: Reduce the weight of packaging materials to cuttransportation emissions — i.e., lighterbottlesrequire less fuel to transport.

Increase recyclability: Use mono-materials to simplify the recycling processand reduce the need for virgin raw materials.

Utilize recycled materials: Incorporate higher percentages of recycledcontentin packaging to reduce dependence on virgin resources and decrease theenvironmental impact of the packaging.

Reusable systems: Develop reusable packaging systems to reduce the need for new packaging production, reducing resource consumption and waste generation.

[^1]: Bellucci ITA 500ml, Bellucci ITA 750ml, Bellucci ITA BIO 500ml, Bellucci ITABIO 750 ml, Toscano IGP 500ml

Published Jul 2, 2024 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST