Why do you think plastic bottles are still so popular after it has been said that they are worse for the environment than glass bottles? Is it just convenience? Recycling(burning) plastics releases harmful chemicals. Yet people still recycle them. Why?

I wish they'd put pop in glass again. It don't taste the same anymore. Beer is still in glass so WTF?

My guess is that people recycle because that's all they CAN do. No matter how much you, me, and the guy down the block voice our concerns about plastic's environmental impact, manufacturers aren't going back to glass.

Why not? The bottom line. For one thing, plastic weighs a lot less than glass, so plastic costs less to ship. The lighter, the better. And glass breaks, while plastic bounces (for lack of a better description). I believe most consumers, especially those with small children, appreciate plastic's no-break, no-sharp-invisible-pieces-on-the-floor, no-sticky-liquid-all-over-me-and everything-else qualities.

Plastic bottles - another example of the age-old truth: What we like isn't necessarily good for us:)

Where I live they simply clean and sterilise the bottles and then reuse them. They are made out of extra thick plastic specially designed for the purpose.

Plastic has been widely known for years to be very harmful to the environment. This is nothing new. Forget about the recycling problem, that is the tip of the iceburg. Landfills are brimming with this toxic waste that never decomposes.

A lot of things considered 'green' aren't quite as green in practice as they are in theory. This is not to say that there is no reason to recycle but it is best not to be overly smug or avid about it as you are likely to later discover that something you are doing is secretly killing whales, boiling snail darters or giving spotted owls the mange. And then HOW WILL you ever LIVE with yourself? Oh, the humanity!

Glass is MUCH heavier than plastic. It costs far more to transport. The transportation is often via truck, which pollutes via fossil fuel burning. Perhaps this is part of the reason.

Economics and market forces. Plastic bottles are light and therefore cheaper to transport (because less fuel is required to transport them). Plastic is also cheaper and faster to produce and is therefore the economic choice for lower grade luxury consumable goods.

Eventually there may be a shift back to the glass bottle deposit scheme but only if enough companies and or businesses offer it and if consumers would prefer to choose it. It is not an efficient way and it is still at present cheaper to produce plastic from scratch. Change is slow, especially in business if there is no economic benefit to be made by the change.

Unfortunately, many people feel the need to make choices based on economic rather than environmental factors and so this is the reason why. That is market forces for you.

I'm guessing it's because they're cheaper and safer.

I can't find glass bottles where I live except for wines.