From what I remember, the difference is quality control. Western companies are usually much more restrictive, accepting only every 10th or 100th item from the producer. The subpar items are then sold by the producer somewhere else such as Temu or AliExpress. I also know this to be true for microscopes. Motic produces in China for Zeiss, but Zeiss refuses most of their units due to QC issues, which are then sold by Motic under their own name for a fraction of the Zeiss price.

Aluminium recycling/melting however needs a lot of energy, which again is often generated from non-renewable sources. So even cans are bad for the environment.

A Winnie Pooh reference maybe.