In the current economic climate, businesses that care for the environment are very highly regarded. Because of this, some businesses feel pressure to be completely green in all areas—but buyer beware. While it's important to do what you can to reduce your carbon footprint, both for ethical and brand-appeal purposes, it's important not to allow that to overtake your primary objective. Your business is designed to make money. It must make money in order to continue to exist—and sacrificing too much profit in order to meet a self-imposed environmental standard may reduce its ability to do so. With that in mind, here are three reasons you should stick with plastic bottles for your product instead of switching to glass.

Costs Would Rise

It's simple, but it's true. Plastic bottling is cheap; glass is extremely expensive. Not only does this vastly bump up your production bills, but it also creates a price hike for your consumer. That's going to reduce your sales, no question—and transport costs would increase too, since glass is both fragile and much heavier than plastic. So how high would you have to raise the price in order to offset the increased material costs and lower sales? Would that even be feasible? For a luxury product to be sold wholesale to fine restaurants and suchlike, perhaps, but most products rely on directly selling to the consumer.

Glass Is Inconvenient

The market may say consumers prefer greener options in theory, but be realistic. How many consumers are really looking for a cumbersome glass bottled drink to accompany their work lunch on the go? It would be heavy and inconvenient, and there are few glass recycling repositories out and about for consumers. That entirely offsets the environmental impact of giving up plastic; your customers may be forced to throw the glass bottle away with general waste in any case. If you are supplying solely to restaurants and cafe, then perhaps it'd be alright, but it's still certainly not the most convenient option. That's why plastic became popular in the first place—and for good reason.

It's Unnecessary

This certainly isn't the case for every environmental measure, and of course switching to a more sustainable material should be applauded where it makes sense. However, erasing plastic bottles from your manufacturing process just isn't necessary. Plastic is now broadly recycled; making an effort to encourage the consumer to do so on your packaging may well be equally as effective a measure. Taking some other measure to show that your business cares about the environment—such as tree-planting or donations to green charities—would be cheaper, more effective, and do more for your brand. Win-win-win.

In the end, the message is simple: while customers may consider glass bottles fashionable, and while they may fall into line with recent consumer trends, that doesn't make them the best option. There are other factors at stake—and on balance, those factors almost certainly win out. Contact a bottle supplier in your area to learn more about your options.