It's hard to escape PET plastics. Polyethylene terephthalate (better known as PET) has become the food packaging material of choice since it was patented in 1973: It's used to produce approximately 600 billion plastic bottles every year, which are destined to be filled with everything from soda and water to mouthwash and salad dressing. But just because PET is one of the most commonly used plastics doesn't mean it's innocuous.
"A plastic bottle…embodies a lot of harm from manufacturing until the point that it reaches the consumer, [and then] the waste it creates afterwards," says Mike Belliveau, executive director at Defend Our Health, a nonprofit organization focused on environmental safety and social justice. "Petrochemical plastics are problematic at every turn."
