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PET bottles not so green: activist

Although the country has done a good job recycling Polyethylene-terephthalate (PET), with government statistics showing a 100 percent rate of recycling use, PET remains non-degradable, a local environmental protection activist said yesterday.

The most efficient way to protect the environment would be to stop using PET bottles altogether, said Chou Chun-ti (周春娣), chairwoman of the Conservation Mothers Foundation in Kaohsiung.

Chou said it was a mistake to describe PET bottles as one of the most environmentally friendly containers just because they are 100 percent recyclable.

Although PET is fully recyclable and can be used to manufacture new products such as cosmetics, high-quality carpets, plastic wrap, car parts, hypo-allergic pillow fillings and fabrics, the recycling process is energy intensive, Chou said.

Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) date showed that the volume of recycled PET was 80,000 tonnes in 2004, 81,000 tonnes in 2005, 91,000 tonnes in 2006 and 97,000 tonnes last year.

As a 600cc PET bottle is made of only 20g of PET, the 6,000 tonnes of additional PET recycled during the one-year period between 2006 and last year means that Taiwanese consumed 300 million more PET bottles during that year.

Lin Chien-huei (林建輝), an EPA Recycling Fund Management Board official, said that the more bottles were recycled, the more were being used, which was taking us further away from the spirit of garbage reduction.

Although PET bottles have been the cause of environmental disasters, they hide behind a smokescreen of environmental protection, Chou said, saying that few people hesitate to buy soft drinks in PET bottles because they know they are recyclable.

Although the EPA has done a great job in recycling, it is nevertheless wrong for the administration to not try to discourage people from using PET bottles, Chou said.

Only when the volume of recycled PET bottles is reduced to 40,000 tonnes or 30,000 tonnes a year while the recycling rate remains at 100 percent will there be “true protection of the environment,” Chou said.
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