Hidden Hazards – The Chemical Footprint of a Plastic Bottle

Defend Our Health, Beyond Petrochemicals, May 2023

Worldwide, the beverage industry buys more than 500 billion plastic bottles every year to package its products. This insatiable demand for plastic bottles drives the production of a common plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate or PET. Plastic bottles consume a quarter of all PET plastic production worldwide. This first-ever study reveals the potential threats to human health, environmental justice, and climate change created by the chemical manufacturing and plastics production processes required to turn crude oil and fossil gas into plastic bottles, as well as from consumption of plastic-bottled beverages and final disposal of the bottles.