PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2016

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 18 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 04/16 www.petpla.net How water in PET bottles helps to manage a crisis and brings about new challenges A flood of bottles by Gabriele Kosmehl Residents of the US city of Flint are leaving the tap turned off when they want to clean their teeth or cook. Instead, they use PET bottles. At least they have been doing so since becoming aware of the exorbitantly high concentration of lead, legionella bacteria and other pollutants in their drinking water. Now the city, faced with the fallout from the scandal, is also having to confront how to tackle a flood of empty plastic bottles. The crisis and its history The crisis began in April 2014, when the US city of Flint in Michi- gan became dependent on the water supply of Detroit, following a decision by state and local officials. Instead of water from the glacial Lake Huron, the 100,000 inhabitants received cheaper water from the Flint River from then on. Many residents became alarmed at the brown liquid issuing out of their taps. Despite this, both the relevant authorities and the environmental organisations played down the health risks that the population was exposed to. The tainted water of the Flint River should have had anti-corrosion agents added before distribution to house- holds, but this was not carried out. As a result, the water in the lead pipes of the city released toxic heavy metals, and this was used over a period of almost two years by the population to wash, cook and drink. Lead poisoning is particularly dangerous to children and pregnant women, as it affects the nervous system amongst other things. In extreme cases, lead poisoning can be fatal. The water supply was changed back to Detroit in October last year. Despite adding phosphates to the lead pipes, which should have formed a protective deposit inhibiting metal contamination of the water, lead values were still way above the norm in many households, meaning that the water was not fit to drink. In January, President Barack Obama therefore declared a federal state of emergency, authorising additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Home- land Security. PET bottles as an interim solution Since the drama unfolded, water in PET bottles and special water filters have been distributed to the popula- tion, by public and private sponsors. To meet the demand for water from the 100,000 residents for drinking, cooking and bathing, 13,000 PET cases were distributed daily, and an estimated 60-65% of the waste which is collected from households by Republic Services, a company involved in waste hauling, consists of bottles. A problem is to educate con- sumers to actually return the bottles for recycling, so that there is some level of sustainability from the flood of bottles. Collection points had to be set up specifically for the bottles’ return. Currently there are more than 12 drop off sites in the city. Three of the sites distribute water and recycling bags to citizens. It is very difficult to obtain an overall picture of how successful the recycling project is, since no reli- able figures are available. Despite the intensive campaign to raise aware- ness of the importance of recycling, a significant amount of bottles is still being sent to land-fill. To encourage a change of behaviour amongst resi- dents, an educational tag on how and where to recycle is attached to each recycling bag. Schupan Recycling, one of the largest volume processors and brokers of used beverage contain- ers in the U.S. runs several facilities in Michigan and became involved in offering some solutions to the current recycling dilemma that Flint faces with the considerable daily influx of water bottles. As of end of March, approxi- mately 17,000lbs of bottles were brought to them for recycling. Com- menting on the figure, a spokesperson for Schupan Recycling pointed out the The Flint Water Response Team is distributing water bottles to Flint residents (photo: Flint Water Response Team) Water samples from Flint (photo: flint- waterstudy.org )