Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Recognizing Plastek Industries for all-around excellence
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
    • Kickstart: A different kind of auto plastics in Spring Hill
      Kickstart: They're not used shoes, they're 'refurbished'
      Kickstart: Holy guacamole, science is cool
      Kickstart: Coffee with a splash of sustainability
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • University of Kentucky to honor Braskem's Krishnaswamy
      PE resin trends highlighted in Shell report
      Dow's Lowry honored by World Economic Forum for sustainability work
      Africa impacts new colors from Ampacet
    • Kickstart: My Earth Day force majeure — writing about reusables
      Climate debate in Washington increasingly includes plastic
      There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
    • Annual PN LSR directory grows
      Want prices? Introducing historical resin pricing, now available in a downloadable form
      A new annual ranking: Top processor gains
      Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
    • Working from home: Rugrats edition
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
    • Auxiliary equipment makers line up future work while noting: ‘Robots didn't get the virus'
      Machine builders press through pandemic with innovations
      PEX pipe maker Uponor donates $30,000 for Texas storm relief
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Perspective: The Materials Wars: Is plastic actually better?
      Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - May 2021
      Polymer Points Live - April 2021
      Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Chase Plastics
      Styrenic Thermoplastics: 4 Polymers and Benefits of Each
      Sponsored By Bandera
      Bandera US was born for the North American market
      Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling systems customized for any process or budget need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei retools in US with investment from parent ownership
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell Polymer
      Sponsored By Shell Polymers
      Food and beverage trends impacting the polymer industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
March 13, 2000 01:00 AM

Plastics seeing greener pastures

Steve Toloken
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    Clearly, the environmental landscape for plastics at the turn of the millennium is getting greener. Mattel says it wants to move into organic-based plastics and away from nonrenewable, oil-based polymers.

    The European Commission has banned phthalates from vinyl chewing toys. Ford and General Motors are making moves to replace PVC in some auto parts, citing performance and recycling issues.

    The list goes on: Medical companies like Baxter Healthcare Corp. have made high-profile, albeit fuzzy, announcements about getting rid of vinyl. Coca-Cola Co. has come under fire for using only tiny amounts of recycled PET in its bottles, and several states are looking more seriously at bottle bills or boosting recycled content as a way to beef up stagnant plastics recycling rates.

    Holding the line

    But will new arguments about endocrine disrupters and renewed vigor in the old debate about recycling issues translate into slower growth for plastics?

    "It is hard to put a number on how big a threat it may or may not be," said Ron Yocum, president of the American Plastics Council in Arlington, Va. "One could argue that in the early '90s, when everybody's favorite sport was to kick the plastics industry, there was growth every year."

    In the last decade, for example, U.S. plastics use rose dramatically. It went from 49.8 billion pounds in 1989 to, unofficially, 80.8 billion pounds in 1999, according to APC.

    At least short-term, plastics sales will not be hurt, Yocum said. APC polling indicates that health and environmental debates surrounding plastics are not "burning issues" with the general public, he said.

    "I think this issue will be with us because it's a cash cow for the activists in raising money," Yocum said. "I think what we need to do as an industry — we need to make sure we have science on our side. I think over a period of time we are going to win this."

    Phthalate debate

    The European Union's ban on phthalates in some PVC toys is a sign of changing consumer and political attitudes about materials use, said Axel Singhofen, Greenpeace's European Union toxics adviser. In the toy debate, regulators cited the precautionary principle, an idea pushed by environmentalists and finding wider use in some government circles.

    "I do think that we will see, in the next few years, more and more of a move toward a materials policy, where people are more aware of what the products they buy are made of," he said. For plastics, that means "unless the plastics industry distances itself and moves out of PVC, it risks the reputation of plastics altogether," Singhofen said.

    Regulators are going to start scrutinizing materials choice more closely, rather than rely on an "end of pipe" approach that deals mainly with disposal, he said.

    Another significant question mark for plastics in the years ahead will be how the debate turns on endocrine disrupters. In other words, will the initial evidence that some man-made chemicals interfere with human hormone systems raise disturbing questions about some plastics?

    Scientists are debating whether bisphenol A, a building block of polycarbonate, interferes with hormones at much lower levels than previously thought. The National Toxicology Program, which is doing a review of phthalate safety, launched a review of that "low-dose theory" in January.

    Theo Colburn, the zoologist whose 1996 book Our Stolen Future kick-started the endocrine debate, says there are too many unanswered questions to predict how plastics will weather the debate.

    "We know very little about their effects in the womb — that applies to practically every chemical," said Colburn, who directs the wildlife and contaminants program at the World Wildlife Fund's Washington office. "There is absolutely no way to know what is out there, and what is safe and what isn't safe."

    The U.S. government and other countries need to complete endocrine disrupter tests to answer those questions, she said.

    Colburn said plastics obviously have a great many benefits, and it may be necessary to make only minor changes in materials use to address specific problems.

    "We may have to just do things with the populations we are concerned about," Colburn said: young children and fetuses.

    Increasingly that's where environmental questions are focusing, whether it is BPA in baby bottles or phthalates in chew toys.

    PVC under the gun

    Vinyl clearly has borne the brunt, but so far most of the attacks on PVC have focused on relatively small markets, such as teething toys and medical blood bags. Some 63 percent of PVC made in the United States goes into building and construction, a market that has been free of large-scale environmental attacks, said Arlington-based Vinyl Institute spokesman Allen Blakey.

    Despite the persistent attacks on PVC, the resin has seen strong growth: In 1995, 12 billion pounds of PVC were sold in the United States. Unofficial 1999 figures are 15.1 billion pounds, a 25 percent increase, APC said.

    "I think we are going to look back and only see some very particular and small impacts that the green activists have brought," said D'Lane Wisner, environmental solutions director at Geon Co. of Avon Lake, Ohio.

    Wisner did say, however, that there will be markets in the developed world where vinyl will lose share. Vinyl is losing some ground in automotive applications, but that's because newer, better-performing materials are coming along, he said. PVC will grow, especially in the Third World, because of its cost and performance benefits, Wisner said.

    The medical market, though, will move away from PVC because of perceptions of health risk, according to Len Czuba, medical market director at Herbst Lazar Bell Inc., a design and development house in Chicago.

    "In spite of the fact that we've shown that PVC is safe, I think that companies will capitulate and offer replacement materials to PVC," he said. "That's sort of a 10- to 15-year view."

    Recycling outlook

    Recycling and resource conservation issues also are on the rise, with the PET industry seeing the most pressure on topics ranging from declining rates to Coke's use of recycled content.

    But Luke Schmidt, president of the National Association for PET Container Resources in Charlotte, N.C., said he does not think it will dampen PET's growth, including in beer.

    "Long-term, our view would be that as long as industry keeps maintaining support for recycling ... the risk is relatively low," he said. Local governments have decreased their support and education efforts for recycling, he said.

    PET has seen "almost straight line growth" from 800 million pounds of bottle-grade resin sold when NAPCOR formed in 1987 to 3 billion pounds in 1998, he said.

    Miller Brewing Co., which is testing beer in PET in a dozen markets, considers recyclability a major concern, but "we don't see it as a roadblock," said Scott Bussen, spokesman for the Milwaukee-based brewer.

    Miller has made several changes to its bottle design to enhance recyclability, and has promised to use post-consumer content if it does a commercial roll out, Bussen said. But he said consumer commitment to recycling is lagging.

    Some local governments, by contrast, are starting to view waste as an unfunded mandate and supporting efforts like the GrassRoots Recycling Network's call for Coke to use recycled PET, said Bill Sheehan, executive director of GRRN. But the concept of producer responsibility GRRN advocates remains relatively little known, he said.

    "It's a tidal wave in other countries, but it's in the wilderness here," Sheehan said. "It's probably not going to be seen as a stampede until waste is seen as a crisis or waste is linked closely enough to other issues seen as a crisis, like global warming."

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions