>
>Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 11:14:22 -0600
>From: "RecycleWorlds" <anderson@msn.fullfeed.com>
>To: "GreenYes" <greenyes@ucsd.edu>, "EnviroLink" <recycle@envirolink.org>
>Subject: [GRRN] Plastic Beer Bottles
>Message-ID: <01be3285$83016b20$0eb7b8c7@compaq>
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>There is an article in the 12/21/98 Plastics News ("Shell Heats Up Beer
>Market," by Frank Esposito) that suggests that:
>
> 1. The plastic beer bottle vendors may be targeting premium brand
>beers as well as the lower grade beers. I wonder whether that this may be
>an additional inference from the statement by Shell's Ed Sisson, PEN
>Business Development Manager, that their new PEN copolymer bottle "can
>produce beer bottles with the traditional 'champagn' base. Beer marketers
>want to retain the base to differentiate plastic beer bottles from similar
>bottles used for soft drinks and juice, according to Ed Sisson."
>
> 2. The target container has previously been thought to be intended to
>displace glass bottles. However, it may be that displacement is especially
>targeted at cans down the road. Sisson also is quoted stating: "'We believe
>the beer market will evolve in two tiers,' Sisson said. 'The first market
>will be sports venues and beaches and places where you can't use glass or
>metal. The second tier will be in the substitution phenomena where plastic
>bottles will gain an advantage over cans.'"
>
>This is important for evaluating whether beer can be introduced in plastic
>bottles without either increasing the cost to process all PET bottles or
>lowering the value received for the recycled PET bottles. That is because
>any of the technologies used to provide the additional barrier protection
>required by beer over that required by soft drinks will leave some residue
>of the barrier material in the PET flake. Since there is some trace level
>of such contaminant below which the resulting deterioration in performance
>will be below the threshold for recycled bottles, the more plastic beer
>bottles, the harder it will be to remain below that threshold.
>
>By way of further reference to guage how many beer bottle may be shifted
>from glass and/or aluminum to glass, refer to the following table--
> _____________
> NUMBER OF CONTAINER UNITS BY MATERIAL
> AND APPLICATION
> 1997
> (billions of container units)
>
> Beer Soft Drink Other
>GLASS 16.7 0.9 17.9
>ALUMINUM 34.2 62.6 0
>PLASTIC 0* 21.4 10.7**
>
>
>
>____________________________________
>Peter Anderson
>RecycleWorlds Consulting
>4513 Vernon Blvd. Ste. 15
>Madison, WI 53705-4964
>Phone:(608) 231-1100/Fax: (608) 233-0011
>E-mail:recycle@msn.fullfeed.com
>
>