Plastic Bottle Institute

Glossary of Plastic Bottle Terminology, Plastic Bottle Institute of The Society of The Plastics Industry, New York, 1980. 

Last year, 100 million pounds of post-consumer plastic soft drink bottles were recycled in the U.S. — about 20 percent of all the PET in the bottle market. According to the Plastic Bottle Institute, by 1988, more than 230 million... 

Recycling directories, plastic recycling update newsletter. SPI Plastic Bottle Institute, 1989. 

Plastic Recycling Directory Plastic Bottle Institute Society of the Plastics Industry 1275 K Street NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005 (210) 371-5319... 

The size of CT closures is specified by the nominal outside dimension of the container opening in millimeters, plus a number that represents the style of finish. Both container and closure finishes are standardized so that, at least in theory, a closure of a given size and style should fit any bottle of that same size and style, from any manufacturer. U.S. closure standards have been established by the Closure Manufacturers Association, standards for glass bottles by the Glass Packaging Institute, and for plastic bottles by ASTM International (Fig. 11.8). Common closure diameters are 22-120 mm. 

According to the Container Recycling Institute, only 14 percent of plastic water bottles are recycled. 

Awareness of the problem developed in the mid 1970s when it was found that mineral waters sold in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bottles contained measurable amounts of vinyl chloride monomer. Vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen. The Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants has set a guideline of 1 ppm for vinyl chloride monomer in PVC packaging and 0.01 ppm of the monomer in food (Institute of Food Technologists 1988). Another additive found in some PVC plastics is octyl tin mer-captoacetate or octyl tin maleate. Specific regulations for these chemicals exist in the Canadian Food and Drugs Act. 

Taloken, Steve, PVC Bottle Recyclers Chastise Vinyl Institute, Plastics News, August 18, 1997, p. 36. 

Containers selected to transport fuel or the fuel/water bottom to a laboratory should be impervious to the fuel. If possible, sterile glass or plastic (i.e., high density polyethylene or polypropylene) containers are suggested. The Institute of Petroleum (1996) recommends using silicone rubber stoppers or plastic screw caps with inserts to cap these bottles. All samples should be properly labeled with the company name, the location of the tank, the location within the tank where the sample was taken, the type of sample collected (either fuel, water bottom or fuel/water bottom interface) and the date and time the sample was collected. 

PVC has been criticized by Greenpeace and also by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers, which in 1998 labeled PVC a recycling contaminant, pointing to the failure of a year-long effort to find markets for recycled PVC and the fact that many of their members had to landfill recovered PVC bottles because they could find no markets for them. After that report, the Vinyl Institute funded a pilot project aimed to jump-start... 

---