The production and packaging of formula uses paper, glass, plastic, and metals, all of which need to be produced and disposed of. If every child in America were bottle-fed, almost 86,000 tons of tin would be needed to produce 550 million cans for one year's worth of formula. But the formula is not the only problem. All these products use natural resources, cause pollution in their manufacture and distribution, and create trash in their packaging, promotion, and disposal. Plastic feeding bottles and nipples will take 200 to 450 years to break down and it is impossible to determine the amount of time it takes for glass feeding bottles to break down.
Landfill sites are hard to come by in many countries and they can pollute groundwater.
Incineration releases pollutants into the air. The fumes from burned plastic can contain dioxin and other toxic substances. In 1987, 4.5 million feeding bottles were sold in Pakistan alone. These feeding bottles stacked end to end would reach the top of Mount Everest. The fertilizers used to grow feed for dairy cows pollute rivers and groundwater.