Pantry food containers: glass or plastic?

This article has been written by Angela Chung, who lives in Macleod. Angela used to operate her own small business called Pop-Up Pantry, which was an online store delivering pantry and household cleaning products direct to homes within 10km of Macleod.

When you open your pantry, do you see plastic or glass containers? Which one would you like to have? This article discusses the pros and cons of plastic and glass containers by considering 6 factors, namely purpose, personal health, environment, cost and aesthetic. Hopefully, it will help you to make the choice of the containers in your pantry.

This table below provides my overall assessment for each of the factors.

Factor	Feature and benefit	Glass	Plastic
Purpose	Transparency: easy to see contents	Yes	Yes
	Durability from stain and scratch	Yes	No
	Stackable	Not so much	Yes
	Transportable: lightweight	No	Yes
	Keep food better flavour and fresh	Yes	No
	Children friendly / not breakable	No	Yes
	Large bulk capacity more than 2 litres	No	Yes
	Easily washable from stain and smell	Yes	Not always
Personal health	Safe from chemical releases	Yes	Not always
Environment	Recyclable	Yes	Limited
Cost	Inexpensive and affordable	No	Yes
Aesthetics	Better looks	Yes	No
Total score of ‘yes’		7	6

 

Plastic is convenient, lighter, cheaper and a space saver

I think that we can all agree that plastic containers are better for storage. That’s why they have been popular for containing food since they were invented in 1950s. They save space by being easily stackable and their light weight makes them easy to transport and get re-filled dry bulk food. 90% of my pop-up pantry customers bring plastic containers. They are inexpensive and available in any supermarket. And, of course, you don’t need to worry about them breaking to pieces by dropping.

However, the downside is that the plastic can be easily stained, scratched, and stuck with previous food content. One major issue for me is that the colour and clearness gets lost over time and another issue is that they are not so easy to clean in a dishwasher. By contrast, glass tends to hold its shape better, be durable, remain clear colour, and it keeps the freshness and flavour of food, particularly wet ingredients.

Glass is beautiful and always looks new

Plastic containers can look tired, lost shape and scratched over time. It doesn’t matter how I wash my plastic containers, they don’t look the same as when they were new. Oil and colour stains can be hard to remove too.

By contrast, glass containers can look new after a hot and soapy water clean! I recommend the heavy-duty mode in the dishwasher to achieve this. Glass can also be sterilised. If cleaned properly, they can look fabulous on open shelves!

Both plastic and glass can have an issue with stinky food smells. Greenmatters (https://www.greenmatters.com/p/how-to-get-the-smell-out-of-jars-etc) has a few tips for removing the odours: leave bicarb soda paste or a white vinegar & water mixture inside the jar overnight before rinsing off the next day; and, if the metal lid is still stinky, leave it in direct sunlight.

Glass is better for the environment

When it comes to durability, longevity, and its ability to be recycled, glass is the winner! Glass containers for food and beverages are 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity, whereas most plastic will end up in a landfill.

(Note that other types of glass, like windows, ovenware, Pyrex and crystal, are all manufactured through different processes and, although theoretically 100% recyclable, may not be in practice, depending on the local council’s facilities and capacity. See www.gpi.org/glass-recycling-facts.).

Glass is safer for health

I have read some disturbing things about the potential health hazards of plastic. Most plastic food containers are made using polycarbonate plastics, some of which have bioactive chemicals, like bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. BPA and phthalates can interfere with the body’s normal use of hormones; not just estrogen and testosterone but also thyroid and adrenal hormone production. They can apparently cause physical change, including genital changes that can cause lower sperm count in boys (see www.fatherly.com). To minimise these risks, make sure that any plastic containers you acquire are free of BPA and phthalates. Also, never microwave your food in plastic containers.

By contrast, glass doesn’t have any health issues unless it broken into sharp pieces become a hazard. Also, glass has a non-porous surface that doesn’t absorb like plastic and can be safely washed at higher temperatures in your dishwasher without melting or warping.(see www.epicurious.com/expert-advice).

My conclusion

For the environmental and health reasons discussed above, I now choose glass. I used to use a lot of plastic takeaway containers that I collected over the years ands I loved them because they were so cheap (most free), light, stackable and clear (to see their contents). But I changed my mind and replaced them with glass containers when I learned how harmful single-use containers can be if repeatedly used. Buying new glass containers was an expensive investment but I decided to do the right thing for my family. I also like that glass is durable, long-lasting and looks great.

Note that I still use plastic food containers for large bulk food items, including rice and flour. The biggest problem of glass containers is hard to transport due to their weight. My solution for this is to use a foldable trolley with fitted pockets, for example when I go to farmers’ markets.

Also note that stackable rectangular glass jars with plastic airtight lids are suitable for meat and dairy products and your local butcher should be willing to fill such containers for you.

And if you still want to use lightweight, affordable plastic containers?

Make sure to get high quality, BPA-free containers, clean them often, and keep using them as long as you can.

References

Glass vs plastic containers. What’s best for you and your food?

Plastic or glass: which food storage container is best?

Zero-waste methods to get your jars stink-free and label-less.

Glass recycling facts.

BPA & phthalates: the reason why plastic is dangerous for children.