Glass vs Plastic Honey Containers – Which Is Better for Storing Your Honey?
A straight-talking guide to help you choose the right honey storage container
You’ve put in the hard work — managed your hive through the seasons, harvested your honey, and now it’s sitting in your extractor ready to bottle. The last thing you want is to ruin all that effort by putting it in the wrong honey storage container. So, which is better for storing honey — glass or plastic? The honest answer is that both have their place, and the right choice really depends on how you’re using your honey and who you’re selling or gifting it to. Let’s break it down.
Why Your Honey Container Choice Actually Matters
Honey is a natural product, and it’s surprisingly sensitive to its environment. The wrong honey container can affect its flavour, cause it to absorb moisture, speed up crystallisation, or even allow chemicals to leach into your precious harvest. Getting the container right is just as important as getting the extraction and storage conditions right.
One thing worth knowing before you start bottling — honey is sold by weight (grams or kilograms), but many jars, particularly glass honey jars, are sized and sold by volume (millilitres or fluid ounces). These are not the same thing! A jar labelled as 500ml will not necessarily hold 500g of honey, because honey is denser than water. Always weigh your honey when bottling rather than going by volume markings on the jar to make sure your labelling is accurate and compliant.
The Case for Glass Honey Jars
There’s a reason glass has been the go-to honey packaging solution for generations — it simply does the job better than anything else. Glass is completely non-porous, which means it won’t absorb any odours, flavours, or moisture from the environment. What goes in stays pure. Your honey will taste exactly as it should, months down the track.
Glass is also completely inert — it won’t react with the natural acids in honey, no matter how long the honey sits inside. This makes it the safest container for storing honey long-term. If you’re bottling honey to sell at markets, gift to friends, or enter in a show, glass honey jars present beautifully and give your product a premium, professional look that plastic simply can’t match.
Glass also gives you more flexibility when it comes to labelling. Because most glass jars are round with a smooth, generous surface area, you have far more room to work with — wraparound labels, large front labels, or decorative designs all work beautifully on glass. This is a real advantage if you’re building a honey brand or selling at markets where honey packaging and labelling matter.
Another big practical advantage of glass is how it’s packaged and stored. Glass jars come in cardboard boxes with individual dividers that keep each jar separate and protected. Once you’ve filled your jars, you can place them straight back into the same box for storage or transport — safe, stable, and easy to stack. This makes life a lot easier in the bottling shed and reduces the risk of breakage significantly.
Another big advantage of glass that often gets overlooked is how easy it is to clean. Glass is smooth, non-porous, and doesn’t hold onto residue or stickiness the way plastic can. A good hot wash and your glass jar is as good as new — making it ideal for reuse season after season.
From an environmental standpoint, glass is also the clear winner. It’s infinitely recyclable, reusable, and doesn’t degrade into microplastics over time, making it an excellent choice for eco-friendly honey storage.
The one real downside of glass is that it’s heavier and more fragile than plastic, which is worth keeping in mind if you’re posting honey or moving large quantities.
A Note on BPA-Free Containers
If you’re choosing plastic, this is one thing you should never compromise on — always make sure your containers are BPA-free plastic honey containers. BPA (Bisphenol A) is a chemical used in the manufacturing of some plastics that can leach into food and liquids over time, particularly when in contact with acidic products like honey. It’s a health concern that more and more consumers are rightly aware of. All of our food-grade plastic honey containers at Beekeeping Gear Australia are BPA free so that you can bottle and store your honey with complete peace of mind — no nasty chemicals, just pure honey exactly as nature intended.
The Case for Plastic Honey Containers
Plastic honey containers get a bad rap, but when you choose the right ones, they’re a genuinely practical option — especially for larger quantities and commercial operations. Food-grade plastic honey containers are lightweight, shatterproof, and much easier to handle in volume. If you’re producing large quantities of honey and need to store or transport bulk amounts before bottling, plastic honey buckets and containers are the practical choice.
And when it comes to transportation, plastic is the clear winner. Whether you’re delivering to a farmers' market, shipping honey to customers, or simply moving boxes between your apiary and your bottling shed, plastic honey containers for shipping give you the confidence that nothing is going to shatter in transit: no breakage, no mess, no wasted honey.
It’s worth knowing, however, that plastic containers typically come in large bulk bags rather than individual boxed packaging. This means once your jars are filled, stacking and storing them safely takes a bit more thought — unlike glass jars, which go straight back into their divided boxes. If you’re bottling in large volumes, factor in how you’ll store and transport your filled plastic jars before ordering.
Plastic is also a popular choice for squeeze honey bottles and easy-pour containers — perfect for everyday kitchen use where convenience matters more than presentation.
The downside? Plastic can absorb odours over time, is harder to sterilise for reuse fully, and doesn’t have the same shelf appeal as glass. It’s also not the best option for long-term honey storage.
Practicality vs Presentation
There’s a simple way to think about it — plastic is about practicality, glass is about presentation. If you’re doing bulk sales, supplying a store, or just need containers that stack easily and handle volume, plastic tubs and containers are the smarter everyday choice. But if you’re gifting honey, displaying it at a market stall, or selling to customers who want something that looks as good as it tastes, glass honey jars are hard to beat. That beautiful amber colour showing through a clean glass jar sells itself.
Moisture Protection for Long-Term Storage
One point that’s easy to overlook — glass provides a 100% moisture-proof barrier, which matters more than most people realise for long-term storage. Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it naturally draws moisture from the surrounding air. If your container isn’t completely sealed and impermeable, moisture can slowly work its way in, raising the water content of your honey and eventually triggering fermentation. Glass eliminates that risk, making it the safest choice for long-term honey storage.
Shipping — Plastic Wins Every Time
If you’re selling honey online or posting jars to customers, plastic honey containers for shipping are the clear winner. It’s shatterproof, significantly lighter than glass, and won’t turn into an expensive mess in transit.
Decrystallising Honey — Glass vs Plastic
Crystallisation is a completely natural process and doesn’t mean your honey has gone off. But when it comes to gently warming your honey back to a liquid state, your container choice makes a real difference. For glass honey jars, simply place the jar in a bowl of warm water — no hotter than 40°C — and stir gently until it returns to a smooth consistency.
For plastic containers, you can also use warm water — but never use a microwave. If your honey has crystallised in a plastic container and you want to decrystallise it safely, warm water is always the answer — or better yet, transfer it to a glass jar first.
Which Should You Choose?
Here’s the simple version. Choose glass if you’re bottling honey to sell, gift, show, or store long-term. Choose BPA-free plastic honey containers if you’re storing or transporting bulk honey, shipping online orders, or need something lightweight and shatterproof.
Many Australian beekeepers actually use both — plastic for bulk storage and transportation straight after extraction, and glass honey jars for final bottling and presentation.
One Thing Both Have in Common — They Must Be Sterilised
Whether you choose glass or plastic, always sterilise your containers before filling them with honey. Even brand-new containers can carry dust, residue, or microscopic moisture that can trigger fermentation.
Find the Right Honey Container at Beekeeping Gear Australia
At Beekeeping Gear Australia, we stock a wide range of both glass honey jars and BPA-free plastic honey containers — in a variety of sizes to suit backyard beekeepers and commercial operations alike. Whether you’re bottling your first harvest or scaling up your honey business, we’ve got the right honey storage container for the job.