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Take a deep dive into plastic recycling and the environmental impacts of plastic, aluminum, and glass beverage containers. A latest lifecycle evaluation revealed by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), the business group whose members made the 485 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or #1 plastic, bottles that lined the cabinets of groceries and comfort shops all over the world throughout 2021, is bound to be controversial. These bottles regularly find yourself as litter in the environment. Lauren Laibach, director of information companies at NAPCOR, joins the dialog to debate the group’s new evaluation, which means that PET bottles have a decrease environmental influence than glass and aluminum beverage packaging.
According to the report, which in contrast the packaging wanted to ship 1,000 gallons of drinks and never by evaluating equally sized bottles and cans, PET bottles require 80% much less power to provide, create 80% much less stable waste by weight, and use 53% much less water throughout manufacturing. In addition to the reported power, waste, and water reductions, PET packaging purportedly has a 74% decrease international warming potential and generates 68–83% fewer acid rain- and smog-forming emissions. In 2021, nonetheless, solely 28.6% of PET bottles and packaging were recycled, which lags behind the EPA’s reported 2018 information for metals, when 70.9% of metal cans and 50.4% of aluminum cans had been recycled.
NAPCOR’s government director, Laura Stewart, mentioned that the brand new lifecycle evaluation reveals “A PET bottle is 100% recyclable and will be made with 100% recycled content material.” That is an inherently controversial assertion and we’ll do our greatest to tease aside these complicated findings. You can learn the NAPCOR examine at napcor.com/lca-report.
This podcast initially aired on April 10, 2023.
