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In the face of continued declines in plastic recycling rates, a handful of PET industry advocates have hit upon a new strategy: prevent new more sustainable alternatives from entering the market.

Their approach is just plain wrong. Better alternatives are the key to the success of plastic recycling, and may represent the future of the companies now devoted to PET.

PET exploded onto the marketplace, and quickly captured share once held by more easily recyclable packages, like aluminum and glass. PET now dominates the soft drink market, especially bottled waters and noncarbonated drinks.

But the promise of PET recycling has not been filled, and never will. The industry increasingly recognizes that PET suffers from a classic square peg, round hole syndrome. They weren’t designed to be recycled. They were designed to be tossed. Twenty years ago, we thought that was a temporary problem. With enough volume, we believed, the economic and environmental costs of PET would plummet.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. When you count the costs to collect and process it, PET is still too expensive. It takes too much energy, too many resources, and too many dollars to turn a complex plastic product into a practically worthless pile of scrap. Then, it takes even more to rebuild it into a complex plastic again.

As a result, the world is increasingly buried in plastic bottles. Billions lie in landfills and along roadsides throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. They don’t break down. They don’t recycle. They don’t go away for a long, long time.

It’s time to give people a better choice, and share the marketplace with better alternatives.

One example is PLA. Several years ago, we needed a biodegradable plastic film to increase the wet strength of our paperboard, without sacrificing recyclability. I struck up a conversation with a guy from Battelle Labs, who was working on a new kind of plastic: polymerized lactic acid, or PLA. PLA didn’t come from petroleum. It was made by fermenting sugar into lactic acid.

The idea fascinated me. We put 20 chemical engineers on it, and built a pilot plant. The product we created was extraordinary. PLA was more than just a better laminate. It could do almost anything we needed plastic to do. We could spin it into fibers, weave it into cloth, or cast it into film. It had the same strength as nylon, but was totally biodegradable. It came from renewable sources – corn, wheat, or any source of sugar. It broke down into carbon dioxide and water. And it was beautiful, to the mind, the eyes, and the touch.

As a newcomer to the polymer industry, we couldn’t afford to take PLA into all these markets, so we sold the technology, and have no stake in it anymore. Today, companies like Toyota, NatureWorks, Natur, and Biocore have developed PLA into an affordable option. The largest plant has the capacity to manufacture 300 million pounds of PLA a year. If it succeeds, additional plants could be built wherever there is a source of high-sugar waste from plant debris – which means just about anywhere.

Now, PLA is being used for everything from water bottles and drink cups to clothing, carpets, and bedding. With volume, new varieties could be developed for carbonated soft drinks, or made from compost or organic agriculture.

Like PET, PLA can be recycled. But unlike PET or any petroleum-based plastic, it can also be composted. It breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. It offers a zero-waste option, especially when used where composting is easy and available.

That’s what worries the PET industry. Lately, a few industry representatives have begun a campaign of rumor and innuendo, trying to create worry among recyclers that PLA will contaminate PET recycling programs. They say that if PLA is mixed with PET, it will create a haze problem that will degrade the material.

But PLA is no threat to PET recycling. It will be years before volumes reach the level where contamination will be a problem. Even if it is, the problem is no worse than self-imposed contaminants in PET, like a recent Perrier bottle with an additive. Sorting technologies are already available.

Responsible members of the PET and plastics industry would never try to foment worry on the part of recyclers, simply to block the entry of a more sustainable alternative. It is time for industry leaders to open the doors to environmental innovations like PLA, and to focus on finding solutions, not exaggerating the problems.

PLA will be good for the plastics industry too, and for companies currently making PET. We won’t have oil forever. If plastics are still a part of the future, the only option is to grow them from renewable sources. When my company first invented the aluminum can back in 1960, even the aluminum companies opposed us. They feared scrap aluminum would undermine their subsidized sources of bauxite ore. Now, they are grateful they made the transition to a recyclable source of supply. The plastics industry will be too.

Increasing the use of more sustainable packages like PLA will require boldness, both by recycling activists and business. But the effort will be worthwhile. Instead of forcing a square PET into a round bin, we can begin to use better materials, founded on renewable resources, and designed from the start with the environment in mind.

Bill Coors is the retired former Chairman of Adolph Coors Company, in Golden, Colorado. He is a founding member of The Future 500, and an honorary chairman of SEED, an initiative to increase corporate procurement of sustainable, post-petroleum technologies.

The Future 500 Japan will be holding its annual conference on October 15, Fukuoka, Japan. This year's conference is entitled, "MESSAGE FROM THE SEA - Building a Sustainable Society -". This year's conference will focus on "Sea" and will have specialists, professors, professionals in the field to talk about the sea environment, how the sea environment is deteriorating and how we can build a sustainable society from the sea environment point of view. For more information, please contact them at info-f500@future500japan.org.

The Future 500 China will be holding its annual conference on October 18th and 19th in Beijing. This year's theme is "The Responsibility of Enterprise to A Harmonious Society." Click here for more information or contact Dr. Jin ZhouYing, Director, Future 500 China.

Future 500's Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Erik Wohlgemuth will speak on "What Do Activist Shareholders Want From Boards" at the National Association of Corporate Directors NW Chapter on October 18. Click here for more information.

Come hear Erik Wohlgemuth, Future 500's Director of Stakeholder Engagement,speaking on a panel at the Net Impact Conference -- "Bridging the Gap: Leading Social Innovation Across Sectors." The panel will focus on Trends in Corporate Governance. Click for more information.

Future 500's stakeholder engagement methodology is based on feedback and adaptation. In this spirit, we encourage you -- our stakeholders -- to share your ideas below.