Re: [GreenYes] /All PET "Can"

["Wayne Turner" <WAYNET@no.address>]

Peter Anderson posted:

"According to a press release from Schotland, a Canadian firm, Water
Investment Network, has developed an all PET beverage can, "PETCAN(R)",
including a PET lid with a built in "easy-open" reclosable devise.  "Because
the lid of the PETCAN(R) is made from the same PET material as the body, the
package is claimed to be fully recyclable and evnrionmentally friendly," the
press release asserts."


And from where will the demand for all these 'fully recyclable and environmentally friendly' PET cans come?  In 2001 the US exported nearly half as much PET as it used domestically.  According to NAPCOR, existing domestic RPET plants are at 81.7% of capacity converting 670 tons of PET bottles to RPET.  670 tons is equivalent to only 17.75% of total PET bottles on shelves in the US in 2001.  Additional PET bottles/cans can only result in lower recycling rates until virgin PET users begin to demand RPET as the preferred feedstock.  With the price of crude oil rising, maybe natural gas prices will rise to the point that the RPET flake will become an economically attractive alternative as a feedstock.  But, then, from where will the conversion capacity come?

Does anyone know the price differential between the amount of natural gas (ethene/ethylene?) to produce one ton of PET versus the price of one ton of RPET?


B. Wayne Turner
City of Winston-Salem
Utilities Division
phone: (336) 727 8418
email: waynet@no.address