Material Selection & Design - Essay Example

ors that may be mentioned, such as optical transparency, ability to retain optical characteristics, ability to be labeled easily and cheaply, aesthetics, and ease of cooling of the container (Callister, 2007, p. 10), but these properties are not the main focus of this report. The main purpose of this report is to provide a comparison of the cost and environmental impact analysis of three beverage container materials in the light of the factors mentioned. Through studies compiled by the Intel Corporation (Intel Corporation, n.d.) under their Design and Discovery program, shows the following statistics with regards to cost associated with these containers in terms of material and manufacturing: This world is our home, and only we can make it better or worse.

As a materials engineer, it is not our duty to just focus on the material properties aspect of any choice of materials we make, but also consider the environmental impact of the decisions we make. It is observed that even though awareness campaigns focus on the utility of recycling and promoting that trend, a lot of the beverage containers make their way to landfills. Startlingly, more than twice the recycled amount is thrown away into the landfills (Container Recycling Institute, 2003-2010).

This results in generation of toxic waste, greenhouse gases, waste water, and land destruction and occupation. Still, the recycled amount is large enough to suggest its benefits. Aluminum recycling can decrease 4.5lbs of carbon dioxide emission for every recycled pound due to the large carbon emissions during refining of aluminum from ores (Intel Corporation, n.d.). Plastics and glasses do not have that much of an impact on the carbon dioxide emission. Aluminum and plastics have their advantages over glass containers, thus making our discussion boil down to these two only.

Beverage containers made out of plastics are cheaper than aluminum. But their recyclability is poor, both economically as well as scientifically.