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Go Green With Eco-friendly Containers
The New York Times recently ran a story, "The Race to Greener Bottles Could Be Long," by William Neuman. Neuman's piece explained the current atmosphere within beverage companies, particularly that of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo and their respective efforts to be the first company to create and implement a line of 100% green, plant material bottles. It's a lofty and exciting goal, but don't expect to see these bottles on store shelves anytime soon. Plastic bottles may appear simple or elementary to some people, but just ask a chemist and he or she will let you know they are lot more complicated than they seem. The task of creating plastic bottles from plants, when they have historically always been crafted from petroleum poses quite the predicament. Let's look at what makes plastic bottles plastic bottles. Then we'll decide whether a plant can replace missing components. You come in contact with PET several times a day, whether you realize it or not. It's in plastic syrup bottles that are used on Saturday morning pancakes and it's in the beverage bottles we all love to sip from on hot summer days. Yet, there's a bit more to a PET bottle than what meets the eye. Take the raw materials, Monoethylene Glycol (MEG) and Purified terephthalic acid (PTA) for example. The alcohol MEG makes up 30% of a PET bottle's presentation. The other 70% is made possible thanks to PTA. Coca-Cola took a big leap a few years ago when they began packaging Dasani in bottles made from 30% plant-based bottles. Coke aimed to be packaging all of their bottled products in these 30% plant bottles by 2020. Based on percentages you can probably tell that the plant material included in the Dasani bottle replaced MEG in typical PET bottles. The plant-based PTA component for all-green bottles is still in the research phase. Neuman explains that the production of green plastic bottles is said to be more eco-friendly than run-of-the-mill oil-based products, given that it doesn't cause as many greenhouse gases. If that's not a big enough selling point ongoing research also demonstrates that plant waste may serve as better material for creating plastic bottles over plants cultivated to be used for producing bottles. We don't have the formula for green bottles figured out just yet. But PepsiCo has plans to take care of that later this year. The company is planning a production run-through, shooting to manufacture 200,000 green bottles. The success or failure of this experiment will speak volumes regarding the cost and manufacturing functionality of green bottles. What's that old adage? Ah, yes, "all good things come to those that wait". This statement couldn't be truer for this scenario. 100% plant bottles may not be available to consumers at this juncture in time, but research, a competitive spirit and passion will keep the flame alive until the bottles finally make their big debut. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Will eco-friendly plastic bottles make their debut on shelves soon? Read Kayla Holman's article and get the scoop on plant bottles. |
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