NAPCOR and Petcore Europe Response to Formula 1 Eliminating Plastic Bottles
We recently read about Formula 1’s plan to immediately start eliminating the use of plastic bottles by racetrack staff with the ultimate goal of doing away with all single-use plastics at the Grand Prix by 2025. As members of the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and Petcore Europe, this news caught our attention.
The fact is, that 70% of water bottle, as well as carbonated soft drink and fruit juice bottle packaging, is made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. Even though it is plastic, PET is not single-use. It is 100% recyclable and is the world’s most commonly recycled plastic. It is likely the very type of recycled plastic used to make the 2021 credentials for F1 and FIA staff, teams, media, guests and fans.
In the US and Canada, the close to 1.6 billion pounds of recycled PET that displaces virgin material use in products results in total greenhouse gas emission savings equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off roadways annually. Eliminating bottles made from PET will likely necessitate a shift to alternative materials such as aluminum and glass, but these alternatives may actually increase the environmental impact associated with your events. Life cycle studies have shown that the carbon footprint of a beverage container made with recycled PET can be 15% to 50% lower than its aluminum counterpart.
It has been demonstrated that good recycling policy aimed at increasing both collection of PET and incorporation of recycled PET into new products can transform what otherwise might be considered waste into a valuable material feedstock. Deposit return systems and minimum recycled content requirements, such as what has been legislated in California, create incentives on both the supply and demand sides for recycling, fostering a more circular economy.
Instead of eradicating the use of beverage containers made from the material needed to create event passes, we wonder why Formula 1 doesn’t set up recycling bins or receptacles around Grands Prix so that the bottles can be recovered and made into new products?
When recycled properly, PET bottles can be reprocessed for reuse, over and over, into millions of products. Formula 1 stated in its March 9 press release that approximately 143,275 plastic bottles were employed to make all of this year’s paddock passes. Imagine building a system whereby those recyclable PET bottles were recovered from staff, teams and guests and then—in keeping with Formula 1’s sustainability goal of reusing, recycling or composting all waste—those same bottles were manufactured into their passes for the following year.
PET is the most widely recycled plastic in the world and is used in end markets globally each year. We highly encourage Formula 1 to contribute to the circular economy by collecting the PET used in its facilities rather than banning its use altogether.