Losing Ground

Lightweight, cost efficient and easily formed into a variety of shapes and colors, the benefits of #1 PET for food packaging are the same attributes that can lead to its downfall for recycling.

Soda and juices are increasingly being packaged in #1 PET, making it an attractive beverage container for on-the-go people. But that same busy lifestyle can make those containers difficult to collect. These beverages are typically not consumed at home, therefore making it more difficult to get these containers into recycling bins.

On the Level

Growth in use of #1 PET in resin making is making it hard for recycling collection to keep pace with production. Data released by the American Plastics Council (APC), Arlington, Va., shows that in 2000 PET resin sales grew more than 10 times faster than recycling collection.

Although collection rates have dropped only slightly, from 22.1% for 1999 to 21.8% for 2000, that is overshadowed considerably when compared to the significant growth in plastics bottling, says Lance King, senior policy analyst, Container Recycling Institute (CRI), Arlington. “Although data from the APC focuses on increases in plastics recycling, it fails to point out that PET bottle waste has increased seven to 10 times faster than recycling on an annual basis over the past decade. Environmental groups, local governments and a growing number of recycling-based business believe that the current voluntary public and private policies have failed to stem the rapid growth in PET bottle waste.”

Pat Franklin, executive director of the CRI, says recycling rates for the container have hit an all time low. “PET soft drink bottle recycling hit an 11-year low in 2000. Non-carbonated beverages and non-beverage PET bottles hit a seven year low and all PET bottles combined hit an 11-year low,” she says. “We are going backwards.” 

Plastic packaging continues to become more popular in the marketplace, with plastic ketchup bottles now standard and even plastic baby food jars now available for select foods from Gerber.

PET bottles generated may be growing, but if recycling collection and processing costs take too large of a bite from lackluster revenues of sales to secondary markets, the outlook for plastic bottle processing could be bleak.

Luke Schmidt, president of the National Association for PET Container Recycling (NAPCOR), Charlotte, N.C., agrees the current state of #1 PET recovery has leveled off. “The trend, unfortunately, is what we have seen where the recycling rate continues to drop a little bit. It is impacted by the dramatic growth in PET business that continues.”

Bill Sheehan, executive director of the GrassRoots Recycling Network, Athens, Ga., says plastic recycling rates are mediocre at best in most places. “It’s a disaster except for states that have deposits,” he says. “And in most states, like Georgia, that don’t have a container deposit, plastic container recycling rates are around 10%. Because the value of the container is so low, if you don’t put a nickel or dime value on it, you don’t get it back.”

King says states with deposit laws have much higher collection rates for #1 PET, on average achieving collection rates of 80%, compared to about 20% for non-deposit states. But areas with bottle bills are limited, and include California, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine and Columbia, Mo.

King agrees bottle bill states do provide some hope in a rather dismal situation. “One bright spot has been deposit or bottle bill states,” he says. “Since the introduction of the plastic soda bottle, consumers have responded to the incentive to recycle. By separating and returning most bottles to stores or redemption centers, labor and transportation costs of collection are avoided by communities.”

States with deposit systems illustrate a successful scenario, Sheehan says. “The facts are pretty clear that in states that have deposits there are economic incentives. Conservatives love the idea of managing things through economic incentives. Here you have the epitome of a financial incentive. For plastic it is the most dramatic with 80% recovery rates for five or 10 cent deposits.” 

Feeding the Solutions

While use of #1 PET has increased dramatically, using recycled feedstock in those containers has not grown at such a fast pace. While there are many plastic containers with recycled content, such as laundry detergent bottles, getting FDA approval for food containers with recycled content takes longer and standards are much stricter. 

“Unlike glass containers, the FDA requires a letter of non-objection,” says Preston Read, director of environmental affairs, National Soft Drink Association (NSDA), Washington.

“Recycled content PET is something our members have looked at carefully over the last 10 to 12 years,” he says. “One of our largest members is using 10% or so of recycled content in about a quarter of its bottles.”

Public pressure from environmental groups has had some impact on large bottling companies. “Public pressure on Coca-Cola from advocacy groups like the GRRN and CRI has put recycling back on the agenda of corporate management,” King says. “Shareholder resolutions introduced at Coke and Pepsi annual meetings in 2001 brought the issue before the board of directors and in effect was going over the heads of management.”

Coca-Cola has made some progress in this area, he says. “Coke has taken modest steps forward this year, after four years of pressure. Pepsi has done next to nothing and has stonewalled the resolution.”

Gatorade, which may be purchased by Pepsi, reportedly has some recycled content, which has both pros and cons, King says. “It is a good news/bad news situation for Pepsi. Acquiring Gatorade means Pepsi can claim to use some recycled-content, but recycling rates are relatively low since only California and Maine have bottle deposit systems that incorporate this type of beverage.”

In the early 1990s, Coca-Cola began researching using recycled content in its bottles, and currently has recycled plastic in about half its bottles in North America, says Dwight Williams, media relations manager, The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta.

Williams says there are several barriers to Coca-Cola using more recycled feedstock in its bottles, one of those being technology. “The barriers to using recycled plastic have always been a mix of technology and economics,” he says. “Currently we are paying a premium for the recycled plastic we are using in our bottles. The main barrier to moving forward more quickly than we are is technological capacity. While the technologies exist to use more recycled plastic, most technologies are still in the pilot phase.” Coca-Cola is currently working with technology companies and suppliers to have more recycled content in its bottles.

Phoenix Technologies is one of these companies. The Bowling Green, Ohio, manufacturer has worked with Coca-Cola to incorporate more recycled content in its packaging. “Coke has been instrumental in the past seven years in helping to provide support to us for developing our food grade product and to try to find something that works,” says Don Hayward of Phoenix Technologies.

Coca-Cola’s bottling standards and requirements are higher than the FDA minimum, he says, which made the process more stringent. “Their requirements for food safety are much stricter than the FDA. It was one thing to pass the FDA requirements, and yet another to pass Coke’s standards.”

Hayward admits bottling companies, and not just Coca-Cola, have been pressured to incorporate a recycled component to their packaging. “I’d be lying to say they do not feel pressure by environmentalists, but they have been doing this for some time. And like everything that any big company does, they have to do that very deliberately and they have been technical and deliberate and methodical about doing this.”

A Volatile Marketplace

While soft drink makers continue to make headway on using recycled feedstock, an improved market for PET could help, as could creating demand for a closed-loop recycling process. “We started to work on part of the solution by creating a demand for a closed-loop recycling process and the way you do that is to use it again and again,” says Sheehan. “The other part is there needs to be a bigger supply.”

Jeff Raffenberg, recycling marketing manager, Rumpke Recycling, Cincinnati, says markets are a little soft right now. “We have seen prices, for the most part, go sideways and are kind of holding although we have seen some slow down as far as people wanting material. They have cut back a little.”

Handling single-serve PET bottles also caused changes for Rumpke from a processing standpoint. “Obviously a lot of packaging has changed to PET and that becomes, from a recycler’s point of view, harder to get. Especially since single serve containers are not only hard to get in the bin, but also hard to recover.”

He says Rumpke had to adapt its systems to process the popular 16 and 20-ounce containers because original systems were more geared toward 2-litter pop bottles and milk jugs.

“You had single serve containers that when they went through the systems, the bottles fell out with the cans and act differently than other PET in our system,” he says.

Raffenberg says the “All Bottles” campaign does hold some promise from the recyclers’ point of view. “I think there is some validity there. It cuts down on confusion. You never know what you are going to see. From a consumer’s point of view, it is confusing to them.”

Markets for PET can be regional, or demand higher in some areas than others. Georgia has particularly high demand for plastics because of the high concentration of carpet manufacturers, says Gloria Hardegree, association manager of the Georgia Recycling Coalition, Atlanta. Even with a high demand, collection rates were rather low, leading the association to implement an initiative to try to increase collection rates. The initiative is in conjunction with the Georgia Soft Drink Association, Mohawk Industries, Coca-Cola North America and NAPCOR. Ten grants of $1,000 each were awarded by the association in hopes of increasing collection of PET.