This is a text book example from Winners Take all, by Anand Ghidharadas.

They use philanthropy to look noble in the effort of creating a greener planet through recycling. And note that this effort is voluntary, from the kindness of their heart. While, they are the ones creating the problem in the first place. They'll fight any law that will stop them from creating the problem and benefiting from it.

Or they’d go out of business entirely. But that’s like asking Facebook to care about privacy: if they did, they’d cease to exist. Where’s the corporate death penalty when you need it?

It's sad when these packagers/bottlers like Coca-Cola used glass there was a great recycle program built into it. Very sad that this faded away as they changed to plastic.

It only faded away in the West. While staying at a hotel in Africa not long ago I was served Coke in a glass bottle over 15 years old. The bottle looked like what you would expect from a glass bottle that has been use for that long, but the Coke tasted just as good as it usually does.

Glass causes a massive amount of pollution via breakage and product loss, injury, and more carbon use because of its higher weight.

Are their studies that compare glass bottle reuse to plastic bottles? Since a glass bottle just needs to be cleaned for reuse, I naively think it has less of a footprint then the plastic extraction, processing and recycling chain.

Relevant segment from Adam Ruins Everything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koqNm_TgOZk