Natural Styles - Monthly Savings Flyer

Facts about PET or PETE (Polyethylene terephthalate) Plastic Bottles

PET and Health
At Natural Styles, we are as concerned with your health and well being as you are. We offer a variety of health enhancing products and our packaging is also carefully chosen. We chose the packaging only after reading much of the available research papers and FDA reports publicly available.

As you may know, there are many opinions expressed about plastic bottles for food and beverage use. Most opinions are expressed without supporting facts and/or all plastic bottles have been lumped and condemned together.

It is true that there are concerns about using certain kinds of plastic materials which are made into bottles. These bottles are easy to identify by looking for the material type on bottom on the container. The plastic type in question and has been in the news is marked with the number seven (7). (see the NBC WEBSITE for more information on this)

We at Natural Styles use only PET (aka PETE) or HDPE bottles (marked with 1 and 2 respectively) for bottling our juices as they have been proven to be both safe and durable for food and beverages.

Our main bottle supplier has provided Natural Styles with their "Comprehensive Statement of PRODUCT SAFETY and REGULATORY COMPLIANCE" report. You can view it HERE.

More information on PET bottles can be found at the following links:

Amcor PET Packaging
Power Point presentation on PET plastics

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate

American Chemistry Council, Plastics Division
http://www.plasticsinfo.org/s_plasticsinfo/sec_generic.asp?CID=657&DID=2605

The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR)
http://www.napcor.com/plastic/bottles/faqs.html

The Society of the Plastics Industry - YouTube video on plastics
http://www.youtube.com/user/SocietyofPlasticsInd

PET's Carbon Foot Print
Depending on what report you read and with what perspective you view the data in the reports, both the glass and plastic bottle manufacturers state that they produce less carbon than the other. Given that, we have decided to start both glass and plastic on the same carbon foot print level with the product hot off the manufacturing line.

Assuming that the carbon foot print is the same for both the plastic and glass from the manufacturing line, let's look at the shipping of both plastic and glass bottles from the manufacturer to our bottling facility. A typical 32 ounce glass bottle weighs about 18 ounces. A typical 32 ounce plastic bottle weighs about 4 ounces. We all know that trucks have a weight limit so, in theory, a truck loaded with plastic bottles can haul four times the amount of bottles as a truck loaded with glass bottles. This alone makes a bold statement that plastic bottles have a smaller carbon foot print than glass bottles.

Next, let us factor in the finished product delivered to your door. Shipping 32 ounces of product in a glass container means that 36% of the total weight of the finished product is a disposable item which also accounts for 36% of the shipping cost, versus 11.1% disposable item and only 11.1% of the shipping cost on PET and HDPE plastic bottles.

It is clear that PET or HDPE plastic bottles have a far lower carbon foot print in the bottle's life cycle in just the shipping of the empty and filled bottles.

Recycling PET
Much research has been done around recycling plastics and many new products are made from recycled PET, HDPE and other plastics. PET recycling has received much attention in the last few years due to the number of products sold in the PET bottles. The volume of post consumer PET plastic is steadily increasing year after year creating new recycling programs and processes. The vast majority of recovered PET gets recycled into fibers. The fibers are then used to manufacture a wide variety of products such as carpet, padding and even clothes like the warm fleece jacket you may own.

Most major metropolitan areas have comprehensive recycling programs that take in plastic, glass and paper products. With any type of recycling program, it is truly up to the individual to take the initiative to recycle. However, it is up to the manufacturer of finished goods to package responsibly and in such a way that most, if not all, of the packaging is recyclable.

Shipping material such as "packing peanuts" are recyclable by simply using them again. If you don't need the shipping peanuts, most shipping centers will take your used packing peanuts. You can collect them in bags and the next time you drive by your local shipping center, just drop them off.

Natural Styles, Inc is committed to provide you, our valued customer, with the best products in packaging that are both safe and environmentally friendly.