Re: [greenyes] A minor note

[David Biddle <Dbiddle@no.address>]

Jerry-

I was actually thinking more about food containers than beverage containers
for the glass to plastic switch. I know when I go to the store to buy things
like mayo, ketchup, peanut butter, etc., I usually look for plastic
containers because of the safety issue (got kids and a frail old mom to take
care of). 

Your point is well taken though, and a 55% market share for beer is quite
amazing (is that a share of the bottle market or glass containers in
general?). With regard to what you wrote on beer, any idea what the break
down is between consumer beer consumption and commercial/entertainment? My
statement about glass was directly related to consumer issues and how that
effects residential curbside recovery (and redemption recovery in deposit
states). Just curious.

As an aside, there¹s a lot of folks looking at single-stream who don¹t
really feel comfortable with glass recycling...

DB 

on 1/3/05 11:54 AM, Jerry Powell at jpowell@no.address wrote:

> I appreciated the dialogue between Pat Franklin and David Biddle.  However, I
> want to offer a minor comment on one of David's assertions.  He says that more
> and more producers are switching to plastic from glass.  This is not really
> the case.  
> 
> In 2004, aluminum can usage in the U.S. stayed flat (once again) at about 100
> billion cans.  Because of the growth in population and in liquids consumption,
> this means cans are losing marketshare.  At the same time, glass container
> shipments were up 2.0 percent.  About 55 percent of glass use in the U.S. is
> for packaging beer, and because beer sales were flat, this means that glass'
> marketshare growth was greater than two percent.
> 
> PET bottle use in the U.S. rose about eight percent, say several market
> players.  This is because PET is the preferred package for the fastest growing
> segments of the beverage industry.  For example, bottle water sales grew more
> than 10 percent and PET is the preferred package for water.  So the
> proliferation of plastic containers in 2004 is more explained by growth in its
> market uses than in packagers switching to plastic from glass.
> 
> I've been in the business for more than 30 years.  During this time, I've
> always heard that the glass industry is a dinosaur and will soon become
> extinct.  I am still waiting for this to occur.  The U.S. glass industry is
> lean and efficient.  In fact, Wall Street analysts will tell you that glass
> producers have the best return on investment of all packaging producers.
> _______
> Jerry Powell, Editor and Publisher
> Resource Recycling Magazine
> E-Scrap News
> Plastics Recycling Update
> 
> P.O. Box 42270
> Portland, OR 97242-0270
> (503) 233-1305 office                                                       ;
> (503) 233-1356 fax
> (503) 781-2183 cell
> jpowell@no.address
> www.resource-recycling.com
> www.e-scrapnews.com



 David Biddle, Executive Director


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