Which packaging material is described as light, tough, inexpensive, and recyclable?

• A. PET
• B. Glass bottle
• C. Bag-in-box
• D. Cask

Answer: (A)

Packaging materials are judged by weight, durability, cost, and recyclability. The material that best fits light, tough, inexpensive, and recyclable is PET plastic. It’s lightweight, which lowers transport energy and costs; it’s surprisingly tough and resistant to impact, reducing breakage; it’s inexpensive to produce at the scale needed for global beverage packaging; and it’s widely recycled, with established streams to reprocess it into new bottles or other products.

Glass bottles, while recyclable, are heavy and energy-intensive to produce and transport. Bag-in-box is light and cost-effective and can be recycled, but the inner bag and overall construction aren’t as durable or universally recyclable as PET. Casks are sturdy but heavy, costly, and not typically recyclable in the same way, making them less suitable for modern mass-market packaging.