In Stephen Babinchak´s recent letter (May 29, "Don´t let PET industry lose work of experts´´), he asserts that the plastics recycling industry will be best served by continuing to utilize the expertise of the now-independent Dave Cornell and Pete Booth, and that there needs to be an independent, grant-funded organization formed for testing and gathering data on the recyclability of products.
We at Plastics Forming Enterprises Inc. could not agree more with the value Dave Cornell and Pete Booth (among others, including Mr. Babinchak) bring to this industry. We do, however see the need to correct the record on Mr. Babinchak´s second assertion. There has been an independent firm (not grant-supported) fulfilling the role for more than 15 years that Mr. Babinchak views as missing.
Plastics Forming Enterprises is an independent consulting, research, engineering and testing company charged with guiding clients (including most of the companies mentioned in Mr. Babinchak´s letter such as Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Continental PET Technologies Inc. and Schmalbach-Lubeca Plastic Containers U.S.A.) through the maze of issues surrounding testing products for recyclability and designing recyclability into the innovation of new products.
These companies and other plastics packaging and recycling development companies already recognize and are acting on the need to include recycling on the short list of considerations for new and existing products, and they trust us and other firms to assist them in addressing these challenges. Meanwhile, PFE also has been involved in the development of more than $75 million dollars in PET recycling facilities worldwide.
Admittedly, due to many confidential agreements between PFE and these clients, we are often not in a position to step out and speak in detail about the services we are providing. However, PFE is leveraging our knowledge gained in the industry to conduct our first of what we hope will be many technical PET recycling seminars — the first will take place July 17 in Boston — and are reaching out to include independent industry contractors as well as an Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers and National Association for PET Container Resources technical representative.
Jay B. Childs
Plastics Forming Enterprises Inc.
Manchester, N.H.
