4911 S. 118 th St., Suite D
Omaha, NE 68137
Phone: 402-861-9524
Fax: 402-861-9527
Cellular: 402-680-5445
E-mail: lkoester@phonet.com
Subject: Environmental Advantage of PET in Sheet Applications August 10, 2004
Hello,
One of our PET shee t customers asked us to explain the “Environmental Advantages of PET Resin in Sheet Applications.” They are dealing with the McDonald’s and Burger
King types of companies, who are very environmentally conscience. Since I took the time to write a letter for them, I thought that you may be able to use the same information.
The two associations that are focused on PET bottle recycling are the Association of
Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) and National Association for PET Container
Resources (NAPCOR.) Their contact information is listed below and their websites are www.napcor.com & www.plasticsrecycling.org You should visit these sites in order to get their environmental perspective. NAPCOR is particularly focused on giving the perspective of the virgin PET resin producers.
Unfortunately most of the information from these two associations is focused on PET bottles. But in reality only post consumer PET and HDPE bottles are recycled, and post consumer sheet, film and foam packaging have very little recycling. The environmental advantages of plastic sheet, film, and foam are more difficult to explain.
There have been several studies over the years that have confirmed that most plastic sheet, films, and foams have a significant environmental advantage as compared to paper, metal, and glass packaging because they consume less energy and generate fewer waste products in their life cycle. There is less energy involved in the production, transportation, and disposal of plastic sheet, film, and foam packaging. In addition, plastic sheet, films, and foams provide longer shelf life and reduced losses of food products, and provide additional security for medical products as compared to paper packaging.
Plastic sheet, film, and foam packaging (PE, PP, PS, and PET) have an environmental advantage in the areas of incineration/energy recovery, and processes that convert waste to fuel. All of these plastics have high energy content, and are made up of nonhazardous ingredients or combustions products.

Page Two
Environmental Advantage of PET in Sheet Applications
August 10, 2004
The May 24th issue of Plastics News Magazine was focused on recycling and recyclers. There were several informative articles in this issue on recycling. Paper #52 is the article from that issue titled "California firm to make fuel from recycled resin", which is typical of many plastic energy recovery approaches attempted over the years.
This kind of process will probably be the type of process that is successful in recycling of post consumer plastic sheet, film, and foam packaging. The developers indicate that
PE, PP, PS, and PET are all acceptable resins, but PVC is unacceptable. The chlorine molecule in PVC, the formation of hydrochloric acid during high temperature processing, and the potential to form dioxins are the reasons that PVC is not considered an environmentally friendly polymer. This is typical of all of the processes that I have reviewed.
Please review paper #53 “ Environmentally Conscience Production of
Thermoformable Sheet and Film Products
” from Senoplast that was presented at the GPEC 2004 conference. They are a sheet extruder in Austria, and they have some very innovative ways of addressing environmental issues and maximizing the benefit of the environmental advantages of plastics. This paper may give you some new ideas with regard to environmental issues.
In conclusion, plastics packaging will continue to be successful in the future because of lower amounts of energy consumed, and fewer waste products generated during the life cycle of these packages. PET will be one of the leaders in plastics packaging because of superior performance, and its environmentally friendly attributes.
I hope that this information will help you. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely
Larry Koester
Burcham International Corp.
Phone: 402-861-9524
Cellular: 402-680-5445
E-mail: lkoester@phonet.com
“Source of PET Resin to the Sheet Industry”

,
Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR)
Contact: Robin Cotchan
1300 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22209
Phone: 703-741-5578 Fax: 703-741-5646
E-mail: robin_cotchan@plastics.org
Website: www.plasticsrecycling.org
Company: NAPCOR
10800 Sikes Place
Suite 240
Charlotte, NC 28277
Phone: 704-845-5070 Fax: 704-845-5276
E-mail: information@napcor.com
Website: www.napcor.com