Why Glass Bottles Come in Different Colors

Regardless of your motivation or inspiration Packaging Options Direct offers a wide variety of glass bottles to fulfill your every need. Before you buy glass bottles, there are a few things you should know about them.

Glass bottles are not created equal and they vary in size, shape and color. Glass is renewable and 100% recyclable without losing strength or quality. This means that a glass bottle can go from the recycling bin to store shelves in as little as 30 days. This is one of the main reasons why glass bottles are increasingly becoming more popular and individuals are moving away from using plastic.

Glass is a wonderful packaging option because it ensures the product maintains its quality. Due to the variety of color and size options, it can be overwhelming to decide what kind of glass bottle you want to store your product in. What’s the deal with the different colors anyway? Is there a difference between a green bottle and a clear bottle? There is.

Let's discuss the battle of the glass bottles and decipher the difference between clear and colored bottles.

Glass Color Options

The main colors that glass bottles are produced in are green, brown, blue and clear.

The different colors for glass bottles are achieved through various chemical additives, dyes and reactions.

• Blue bottles are a result of cobalt or copper being added to the liquid molten mixture.

• Green bottles are a result of oxidized iron chromate being added to the liquid molten mixture.

• Brown, or amber, bottles offer the finest protection from harmful ultraviolet radiation. This is why brown glass bottles are the best choice for beer brewers.

• Clear glass is natural and colorless and helps show off the product stored inside. However, it offers no protection from light or UV radiation.

So what's the difference between clear and colored bottles? Besides the color the difference, it depends on what exactly you will be using the bottles for.

The Purpose of the Bottles

In today's modern world of Pinterest, Etsy and other popular DIY or handmade websites, people are bombarded with millions of creative ideas.

Apart from that, companies are continually producing beer, wine, oils, personal care items and other products that need to be safely and aesthetically stored. Some companies and individuals decide to use colored bottles for simple marketing and packaging reasons, while others use specific bottles meant to protect the quality of the product.

Beer and wine are typically stored in darker bottles so the taste and quality isn't compromised by light. Beer bottles were green in color until the 1930s when it was discovered that brown bottles filtered out light and prevented the beer from going bad.

Clear and green bottles won't do much for filtering out harmful light, so they aren't recommended for beers that are hoppy. Beer that contains little or no hops can be safely packaged in clear or green bottles. If you are creating essential oils and storing them in glass bottles, don't worry about the clear versus colored issue. For most oils, the color of the bottle they are stored in will not affect the quality of the oil.

Of course there are always exceptions, so you should research your oils to learn if they are affected by light and if they need to be protected in colored glass bottles. If you are creating personal care items such as lotions and creams you can also store those in colored or clear glass bottles without worrying about compromising the quality of the product.

If you add a tint of color to your product you may prefer to show it off in a clear bottle. If your product is generic in color, then you may want to add to it by presenting it in a pretty blue or green bottle.

It all comes down to aesthetics. Other common uses for glass bottles include decoration, repurposing them as vases, painting them and more.

The Final Verdict

At the end of the day, choosing between colored or clear glass bottles is a personal preference.

Unless science or chemistry has proven that a certain color is better for a product, such as brown bottles and beer, then it really doesn't matter what you choose. Packaging is a big part of a product.