Why is beer rarely packaged in plastic bottles?

We often see coke or soft drinks in plastic bottles, but why don't we see beer in plastic bottles?

Plastic is a material that has a huge impact on our lives. It is cheap, can be shaped into any shape, and most importantly, it is easily recycled. But why don’t we use plastic bottles to store beer? Is it because of aesthetics? Taste? Or is there something else?

It may come as a surprise to many that beer is still bottled in plastic bottles in some countries, such as the UK. Here, plastic bottles are a common sight at festivals and events. For example, at the 2012 London Olympics, the biggest beverage sponsor, Heineken, produced around a million plastic bottles of beer just for the occasion. Although the company explained that this was for environmental reasons, it is clear that the main purpose was for safety reasons. At events where thousands of people from different cultures attend, the alcohol and competition can be dangerous when mixed with broken glass.

So why isn’t this type of beer bottle more widely used? One of the most likely answers is that plastic affects the taste of beer. Plastic is a more porous material than glass, which makes beer taste “bland” when stored in a plastic bottle rather than a glass one because the gas in the beverage evaporates more easily.

Another advantage of glass is that it has virtually no effect on taste because it is chemically inert (it does not react chemically with the contents). On the other hand, plastic contains many chemicals that can leach into beer and affect the taste and even the quality of the beverage. For example, the plastic commonly used to make soft drink bottles, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), releases a toxic element called antimony (Sb) into the beverage. When stored at room temperature or lower, the amount of antimony emitted from these plastic bottles is negligible. But the concentration of antimony increases with temperature, so if stored in a warehouse for several summer months, the amount of antimony in the beverage can increase to harmful levels, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

As for aluminum, like glass, it is completely impermeable, making it ideal for storing beer. But unlike plastic, the inside of aluminum cans is coated with a special polymer that prevents the aluminum from leaching into the beverage, making them much safer. Additionally, unlike the other two materials, aluminum is completely light-proof, allowing the beverage to be stored in an aluminum can better than other types of bottles.

In fact, colored glass bottles have been used to store beer because they block out light. But it’s hard to do the same with plastic, because the chemicals added to block out light make the material harder to recycle than regular plastic.

Another problem with plastic bottles is that they can’t withstand the sterilization process that most beers go through. After being brewed and bottled, beer is typically put through a machine that sprays boiling water onto the bottle to kill any bacteria that may have survived the fermentation process. This is both a safety precaution and a way to extend the shelf life of the beer. And while glass bottles and aluminum cans can easily withstand this process, plastic can’t. That means either skipping the sterilization process or choosing a more durable plastic, which will cost more.

There may still be brewers somewhere trying to get plastic bottles into widespread use, while also trying to convince consumers to change their habits (a nearly impossible task). But for the foreseeable future at least, glass bottles and aluminum cans will still dominate the beer industry worldwide.

According to Vnreview