Plastic bottles vs aluminium cans - who'll win the global water fight?

FILE PHOTO: A plastic bottle drifts on the waves of the sea at a fishing port in Isumi, east of Tokyo, Japan November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Global bottled water giants are ramping up trials of easily recyclable aluminium cans to replace plastic that pollutes the world's seas. Sound like a slam-dunk for the environment? Not entirely.

Aluminium cans might indeed mean less ocean waste, but they come with their own eco-price: the production of each can pumps about twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as each plastic bottle.