PET in Germany: Towards sustainable growth (2)
(The Good Samaritan)
Translation in Czech 

HOME ARCHIV 2003 25.08.2003 PET in Germany - Towards the sustainable growth? (2)
 

PETplanet asked Frank Koelewijn, Director General of Petcore, to write a series of three articles on Petcore’s key mission, namely: “ to support the use of PET in the beverage business”. Not surprisingly, he chose to home in on current developments in the German market. Here is his second contribution.

This is not necessarily the case for PET. Only a small percentage of the post consumer PET that is collected is recycled back into PET bottles. The rest goes into other quality outlets such as polyester fibres, sheet, and strapping.

Are you still with me? Good, because when I was first confronted with this “fair and equal” distribution rule, I was lost.

If you only get half of the benefits, it hardly makes a difference whether you go through the elaborate process of collecting, sorting, washing and reclaiming - to recycle good quality flakes into fibres. Burning the lot is cheaper and almost as energy-efficient.

You may as well forget about recycling, and put a match to it! No wonder the Ministry concluded that one-way and two-way PET bottles are ‘ecologically unfavorable’, just like one-way glass bottles. Have we been wrong all along, to put so much effort (and money!) into recycling?

If I’ve lost you now, let me illustrate our dilemma with the biblical account of the Good Samaritan.
The Good Samaritan, riding his donkey on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem, finds a wealthy gentleman lying in the gutter. The man had been robbed, badly beaten, and was left there to die. The Good Samaritan does not hesitate. He stops, feeds the victim and gives him water. He cares for his wounds, dresses him, and lets him ride on his donkey towards the nearest hospital. There he gives the doctors all the cash he has, and instructs them to take good care of the wounded man.

Here’s the second part of the story, according to the book of LCA science.

The Good Samaritan dies a poor man, like all Samaritans do. An angel opens the door and says, ‘What do you want?’ ‘I have come in peace’, says the Good Samaritan, ‘and I am looking for a resting place’. ‘No you’re not,’ says the angel, ‘you’re just a poor old Samaritan’. ‘But I have been good to people whenever I could. Why would you not let me in?’ ‘Just look at how much good that did to you!’ sneers the angel, eyeing his ragged clothes. ‘The distinguished gentleman whose life you saved – he’s in good health, and resting now inside. He doesn’t want to be disturbed’.

If you think that’s sad and unfair, you will understand what happened to PET in the German LCAs. Luckily, the LCA side of this story isn’t over yet. In the ISO standards on LCAs, this dilemma on allocations has been identified, and international rules were set up to overcome this kind of unfair dealing. ISO standards say that on occasions like this, you have to look at the bigger picture. They call it ‘extension of system boundaries’.

Such an undertaking represents a very elaborate piece of work, but it can be done. That is, if you can afford it.
An LCA with extended system boundaries includes all effects, such as market outlets in a range of products. It is also horrendously expensive, which is why it is hardly ever done.

If you then take the ultimate step of justifying the findings by cross-checking them with all relevant economic parameters and subject the outcome to scientific peer review, you end up with the largest LCA ever undertaken on PET.

Is it really that serious? It is indeed!

We commissioned the IFEU institute in Heidelberg, Germany, to undertake this mammoth task, and a range of companies with a stake in the German PET business have already approached us, expressing their interest in participating. They find our doors wide open, and politicians or public interest groups will notice that the German PET beverage industry speaks with one compelling voice.

If you are not yet in and you believe you should be, contact me at info@petcore.org.

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