This environmental scourge clogs the smallest streams, clings to vegetation in overlooked wetlands and disintegrates into tiny bits as it flows to grand rivers and high seas. A study found that in — only a single year — 8 million MT of plastic waste was swept off the land into the ocean due to poor waste management practices and another million MT was moving through marine ecosystems. Accounting for all the water involved in production underscores how plastic — especially the single-use plastic created for beverage bottles and the rest of the food packaging industry — encourages consumers to pour good water down the drain.
Each step in the life cycle of plastic, from the extraction of oil or natural gas at the well pad, through the many steps that result in the resins that become various types of plastic, consumes water. The water footprint accounts for the total volume of freshwater consumed in the entire production process.
Because PET is a petroleum product , its water footprint includes the water consumed in the processes of extracting, refining and manufacturing of oil and natural gas, which produces the raw material that becomes PET resin pellets. The final step includes molding these pellets into plastic packaging.
In a study, researchers affiliated with the Water Footprint Network estimated the blue and grey water footprints of PET by analyzing the steps by which raw material becomes PET plastic resin. Adding the grey water footprint caused the water footprint to jump to 28 gallons per pound liters per kilogram.
Based on these numbers, it takes about 1. According to the plastic waste study referenced above, from to approximately 3. Other bottle manufacturing processes combine the formation of the parisons and the blow molding in a single continuous process.
One such machine is a continuous extrusion machine wherein an extruder is continuously producing a parison. In the extrusion blow molding process, the parison forms vertically and its wall thickness is varied by changing the size of the orifice through which the parison extrudes.
Mold halves close over the suspended parison and transfer it to the blow molding station where the bottle is formed as in the second step of the RBM process described above. Varying the wall thickness solves the problem of non-uniformity of the hanging parison as the weight of the formed portion would otherwise stretch the hot and still-forming section above it.
Wall thickness is thus increased as the parison forms to create a uniform thickness throughout the formation. Another manufacturing process is the reciprocating blow molding machine.
These machines move the screw linearly within the injector barrel to accumulate a shot. Then the screw pushes the shot over the mandrel to create the parison after which it is formed in the usual manner. Water bottle manufacturing depends on the material used to make the bottle, as these bottles are often made of plastic, metal, or other materials.
But what are plastic water bottles made of? From there the plastic goes through the RBM process outlined above. Reusable water bottles need their plastic melted at degrees F C before they are extrusion blow molded. From there they can be reheated a second time to shape them further, and then they are cooled. For more information, you can also check out our article on the top water bottle manufacturers.
The table below contains information on some of the top suppliers of plastic bottles wholesale in the USA on Thomasnet. Loews Corporation. Plastipak Holdings Inc. Graham Packaging Company. Berlin Packaging. Clack Corporation. Comar LLC. The day New York supermodels began carrying tall bottles of Evian water as an accessory on fashion show catwalks in the late s surely signaled the future ahead.
Billions of bottles were sold on the promise that bottled water is good for hair and skin, healthier than soft drinks and safer than tap water. What sets bottles apart from other plastic products born in the post-World War II rise of consumerism is the sheer speed with which the beverage bottle, now ubiquitous around the world, has shifted from convenience to curse.
The transition played out in a single generation. By , the year sales of bottled water in the United States officially surpassed soft drinks, the world had awakened to the burgeoning crisis of plastic waste. The backlash against the glut of discarded bottles clogging waterways, polluting the oceans and littering the interior has been swift.
Suddenly, carrying plastic bottles of water around is uncool. What is cool is wearing them: Hip fashion translates into designer clothes made of recycled water bottles. Activists are zeroing in on the bottle as next in line for banning , after plastic shopping bags. The tiny towns of Concord, Massachusetts and Bundanoon, Australia already have banned bottles, as have numerous public parks, museums, universities, and zoos in Europe and the United States. The developing world—where 2.
In June, Kenya announced a ban on single-use plastics at beaches and in national parks, forests, and conservation areas, effective in June , and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation banned disposable water bottles in all city offices. Consumers have been drinking bottled beverages for more than a century, first in glass bottles, then in steel and, later, aluminum cans. Early plastic bottles showed promise as a lightweight alternative, but they leached chemicals and failed to contain carbonated drinks.
Polyethylene terephthalate has been around since Du Pont chemists developed it while experimenting with polymers to make textiles. It was lightweight, safe, cheap—and recyclable. In other words, it was the perfect container to set the stage for the bottle binge that followed. Perrier and Evian crossed the Atlantic at around that time, launching the bottled water craze.
PepsiCo finally joined the water business and introduced Aquafina in Coke followed with Dansani in Both brands use refiltered tap water. Between and , water sales in the United States had grown by percent, according to Beverage Marketing Corp. Between and , the average person bought between and packaged drinks ever year, Elizabeth Royte reported in her book Bottlemania, citing data from the Container Recycling Institute.
Most of those purchases, she added, involved refillable bottles. Today, plastic bottles and jars represent about 75 percent of all plastic containers, by weight, in the United States, according to the Plastics Industry Association. Ramani Narayan, a chemical engineering professor at Michigan State University, cautions that to focus entirely on the numbers and overuse of plastic bottles is to miss the essence of the problem.
Polystyrene PS is a synthetic aromatic polymer made from the monomer styrene. It may come solid or foamed and has the resin identification code 6.
As a rigid plastic with an excellent moisture barrier and low thermal conductivity, PS is often used to make bottles for dry products, such as vitamins and aspirin. Some milk and yogurt drinks may also come in PS bottles.
Claire is a writer and editor with 18 years' experience. She writes about science and health for a range of digital publications, including Reader's Digest, HealthCentral, Vice and Zocdoc. TL;DR Too Long; Didn't Read Plastic bottles are made of polymers, which are chemically bonded to create materials such as polyethylene and polystyrene.
Kinds of Plastic in Gatorade Bottles. Things Made From Recycled Plastic. Uses of PVC Plastic.
0コメント