Why We Bottle Our Olive Oil in Green Recycled Glass (And Why It Matters)

By Jamie Kenyon

When we launched Something Else, we made a conscious decision to bottle our extra virgin olive oil in green recycled glass.

It wasn't the cheapest option. It wasn't the lightest option to ship. It certainly wasn't the easiest.

We chose it because we believe great extra virgin olive oil deserves great packaging.

Extra virgin olive oil is alive

Great extra virgin olive oil is one of the few foods we consume exactly as nature intended. It's fresh fruit juice, extracted from olives without refining or chemical processing.

From the moment it's produced, it begins reacting with its environment. The biggest enemies are light, heat and oxygen. Together they accelerate oxidation, gradually reducing freshness, flavour, aroma and many of the naturally occurring polyphenols that make high-quality extra virgin olive oil so distinctive.

Dark green glass helps protect against light exposure, slowing that process and helping preserve the quality of the oil for longer. That's why many of the world's most respected producers bottle their oils in dark glass rather than clear bottles.

Good olive oil deserves every chance to stay good.

Why not plastic?

Plastic bottles are cheap, lightweight and convenient. There is no denying that.

But convenience shouldn't be the only consideration.

Over the past few years there's been an explosion of interest in microplastics. They're now found virtually everywhere: our oceans, rivers, soils, the air we breathe and throughout our food chain. Scientists have identified microplastics in seafood, meat, vegetables, fruit, honey, salt and drinking water, amongst many other foods.

The reality is that plastics are now woven into modern life. We aren't pretending otherwise.

At the same time, researchers are continuing to investigate how food packaging interacts with foods, including extra virgin olive oil, during storage. Fat-rich foods such as olive oil behave differently to water-based foods, making them an important area of study.

Recent research has shown that compounds can migrate from some PET plastic packaging into olive oil under certain storage conditions, particularly with prolonged storage or elevated temperatures. Other studies have investigated substances such as bisphenols and other packaging-related compounds in edible oils. This is an active area of research, and scientists are still working to understand the long-term implications.

That doesn't mean every plastic bottle is unsafe.

It doesn't mean olive oil sold in plastic should be avoided.

And it certainly doesn't mean we're interested in fearmongering.

It simply means the evidence is still evolving, and when there is uncertainty around packaging materials, we'd rather choose one with a long history of safely storing food.

We don't chase trends.

There's a tendency for brands to jump on whatever is fashionable. Plastic squeeze bottles. "Chef approved". Convenience-first packaging.

There's nothing inherently wrong with any of that. If it suits the product and the customer, that's a perfectly valid choice.

But if you're producing premium extra virgin olive oil, whose whole purpose is freshness, flavour and provenance, the bottle shouldn't be an afterthought.

Sometimes the latest trend isn't automatically the best choice.

Sometimes doing things properly is slightly less convenient.

We're comfortable with that.

Why recycled green glass?

Green recycled glass offers a number of advantages.

It helps protect the oil from damaging light.

It's chemically inert, meaning it doesn't react with the contents.

"When we had a choice, we chose the packaging that best protects the oil."

It's an excellent barrier against oxygen and moisture.

And using recycled glass reduces the demand for virgin raw materials compared with manufacturing new glass.

For us, it simply gives our extra virgin olive oil the protection it deserves while reducing environmental impact wherever we reasonably can.

And yes... it looks good too.

We won't pretend aesthetics don't matter.

Our ribbed green bottle has become part of the Something Else identity. It feels substantial in your hand, pours beautifully and looks just as at home on the kitchen worktop as it does on the dining table.

Packaging should protect what's inside.

There's nothing wrong with it looking good while it does it.

Our view

We're not suggesting everyone should throw away every plastic bottle in their kitchen.

Plastic has its place, and it's part of modern life.

What we are saying is this:

When we had a choice, we chose green recycled glass.

Because it protects our extra virgin olive oil from light.

Because it's chemically inert.

Because it's widely recyclable.

Because it reflects the care that's gone into producing what's inside.

Because when you spend a year nurturing olives in family groves, harvesting at exactly the right moment and extracting the oil within hours, the bottle should be working just as hard as the people who produced it.

For us, the bottle isn't an afterthought.

It's part of protecting the oil from grove to kitchen.

Good oil deserves good packaging. End of story.

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References

1. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Microplastics and nanoplastics in food. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/microplastics-and-nanoplastics-food

2. Gallego, A. et al. (2024). Degradation and Migration in Olive Oil Packaged in PET under Thermal Treatment and Storage Conditions. Applied Sciences, 14(17), 7507. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/17/7507

3. Migration testing of microplastics in plastic food-contact materials. Trends in Analytical Chemistry (2024). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165993623005083

4. Recent advances in the analysis of plastic migrants in food. Trends in Analytical Chemistry (2024). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993624003303

5. El Karbane, M. et al. (2024). Analysis of Bisphenol A in Extra Virgin Olive Oil Stored in Plastic Bottles. Analytical Chemistry Letters. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/22297928.2024.2360969

6. International Olive Council. Guide to Olive Oil Storage and Preservation. https://www.internationaloliveoil.org