Laura Stewart
Executive Director, National Association of PET Container Resources (NAPCOR)
PET (polyethylene terephthalate) – easily identified by the #1 resin code 
– is lightweight, transparent, durable, versatile, and 100% recyclable. Yet, based on the misguided idea that alternatives to plastic are more sustainable, there is a growing trend to use alternative packaging with devastating environmental consequences.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted on behalf of my organization, the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), makes this abundantly clear. Our peer-reviewed, cradle-to-the-grave study compared PET plastic beverage bottles to aluminum cans and glass bottles across all stages, from production to end-of-life disposal, and found that PET is more sustainable. In North America, aluminum cans have two times the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of PET bottles, and glass bottles have three times the GHG emissions. PET bottles have a lower impact on critical environmental metrics, including energy demand, solid waste, water consumption, climate change potential, smog, acid rain, and more.
Other experts have confirmed our research time and again. In soft drink packaging, McKinsey & Company found PET plastic to be the most environmentally friendly option for lower GHG emissions. The University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, found that replacing plastics with alternatives produces more GHG emissions.
The environmental benefits of using PET plastic over alternative packaging are long-lasting. If US residents chose PET plastic bottles instead of aluminum cans for their soda beverages for one year, it would be the same as conserving 4.4 billion liters of water, removing 688,000 gas-powered cars off the road annually, or diverting 138 million bags filled with trash for recycling versus landfills (source: NAPCOR LCA).
What’s more, the full benefits of choosing PET come about when we recycle it. PET plastic is made to be remade. It can be recycled repeatedly and made with up to 100 percent post-consumer recycled material. In fact, PET is the most recycled plastic in the world, with more than three billion pounds of used PET bottles and containers collected annually in North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico) to be recycled.
It’s crucial to understand the value of PET plastic and the negative impact of replacing it. If US consumers recycled PET plastic bottles rather than throwing them in landfills, we would avoid as much GHG emissions as nearly 53,000 garbage trucks. Additionally, the carbon sequestered would be the same as adding almost 1.3 million acres of forest.
Misinformation hurts our planet. A recent University of Twente study found that “consumers are susceptible to making ineffective environmental choices because they rely on misleading, inaccurate, or naïve beliefs to judge the sustainability of packaging.” That’s why NAPCOR takes every opportunity to close the information gap, such as #PlasticRecyclingWeek, #AmericaRecyclesDay, and yesterday’s article in POLITICO. We encourage consumers and policymakers to use science and data to empower their decision-making – and the data shows that PET should be embraced and celebrated for the positive impact that consumers can literally hold in their hands. Bottom of Form
