John ChomistekUsername: Waterboy |
Location
Grand Prairie, TX, USA
Role
PackagerIndustry
BeverageJob Title
National Packaging ManagerCompany
DS WatersRecent Discussions
Stress cracking
I need some help. The rule of thumb is that HDPE bottles are higher risk of stress cracking in summer months due to higher heat/humidity. Can anyone tell me what actually happens to the plastic to make it more susceptible in the summer? What does the heat and humidity affect to weaken the plastic?
Posted September 4, 2009Are natural plastic resin substitutes really good for the environment?
I am wondering how good bioplastics really are for the environment. There are the well publicized PLA resins and the recent PET filler announced by Coke that uses a molasses based filler to remove PET content. But what actual benefits or costs do these replacement plastics have? 1. There is the claim that the resins are completely recyclable; however, when you talk to a recycling company, they hate these hybrid resins because they pollute the PET stream. So how recyclable are they? Do they do more harm than good to the recycled regrind quality?
Posted May 28, 2009Green Certifications
Is there a best recognized green certification for Corrugated that best conveys and confirms environmental stewardship? Several suppliers are touting a SFI (Sustainable Forest Initiative) certification. I have also seen a FSC cert. What is the most meaningful environmental stewardship certificate program for Corrugated that we should be encouraging our suppliers to attain?
Posted March 19, 2009
Comments
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Which is Better
I definitely agree with the comments that Biodegradable/PLA plastics are a bad deal. When talking to a company pushing those resins, the first thing they say is, "oh, but you can recycle those parts also." Here are my top 10 issues: 1. Biodegradable promotes landfilling not recycling - that is their niche. 2. No matter what is said about recyclability, biodegradable material is a contaminant. there will always be a % concentration mix max to deal with. 3. How can a recycler/blender determine between biodegradable plastic and virgin? Can we depend on the purity of any regrind mix? 4. PLA plastics based on a foodstuff takes food off the table and drives up the price of important grains such as corn. 5. PLA plastics based on a foodstuff grain reduces the success to address world hunger - supply, price. 6. Same concerns about recycling purity - PLA is an impurity to stock resins and will always have a % concentration mix max. 7. Stops the molecule. Best is to keep the molecules of plastic flowing/recycling. 8. Loose energy supplement options. When plastic is recycled to its max usage cycle, programs are now available to then turned it into energy. 9. Ok, I can only think of 8 but you get the point.
Composting Statements
There is a fine line between being an advocate and trying to take advantage of the situation. In order to achieve the 50%+ traction to compost, US consumers must first see the value and what materials can be composted. If the company is displaying a composting logo to promote composting, that is good. Trying to puff the advantage to sell more widgits is another thing. I agree with Anonymous, let's reuse and recycle first instead of loosing a resource.
HDPE Stress Cracking
Thanks Arno. I had seen that article before and it is a good one. After more digging, we finally found that the problem was more related to mechanical damage to the bottle corner than a summer phenomenon. A number of years back we saw the same thing happen with product produced in October and the actual complaint was registered in late Dec. The summer affect seems related more to extra volume and less vigilence at molder and possibly at our plant to. I am not saying that there is no such thing as summer stress cracking, but in our case it looks to be old fashioned physical damage. Once we got through all the BS from molder and resin company, we finally lucked into finding the root cause.
LCA's
I hear you Larry, but man, every LCA is going to have different baseline assumptions and answers. Unless there is some rule on the LCA baseline, comparing LCA claims from competing suppliers of a given product would be totally useless. The only use for such a report would be internal company scorecarding. Is there any move to declare how far one has to dig to come up with a bonefied, accurate LCA?
As stated in the first
As stated in the first comment: 1. How many tons of grain have been removed from the world food market that were/should have been used to feed the world's poor? 2. How has the quality of the PET regrind supply been degraded with the introduction of Bio plastics into the mix? Bio plastics are compatible, but not 100% and will degrade the quality of the recycled regrind. 3. How much more material has to be used on a package/product to make sure it has proper shelf life as it bio degrades over time. I am not ready to jump on the bio plastic band wagon just yet.
Green Certifications
Thanks to both Tom and Frank for your insite. Good food for thought.