Sankey Diagrams » plastics http://www.sankey-diagrams.com A Sankey diagram says more than 1000 pie charts Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:42:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 PET flows in the US http://www.sankey-diagrams.com/pet-flows-in-the-us/ http://www.sankey-diagrams.com/pet-flows-in-the-us/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:49:33 +0000 phineas http://www.sankey-diagrams.com/?p=1125 Polyethylene terephthalate is something everyone of us uses almost every day. Better known by its acronym PET it is used for plastic film and soft drink bottles.

The following Sankey diagram is from a presentation on PET beverage bottle recycling by Brandon Kuczenski and Roland Geyer of Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was held on the First Symposium on Industrial Ecology for Young Professionals (SIEYP) in Tempe, AZ on May 17, 2009.

Sankey diagram showing United States PET material flows in 2006. Source: Brandon Kuczenski and Roland Geyer (Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB). PET beverage bottle recycling – an integrated MFA and LCA. Tempe 2009

The Sankey diagram shows PET flows in million metric tons in the U.S. in 2006. 4.29 mio tons of pet flakes are being produced, of which 2.63 mio tons are transformed into PET bottles (other products are PET film and PET fiber). Only 22.4% of these bottles could be recovered after use. This “loss” is being represented by the blue flow which has only a fourth to a fifth of the width of the red entry flow. Recovered PET bottles are exported or reclaimed, closing the loop at least for a fraction of the PET flows.

Interesting Sankey diagram. Congratulations to Kuczenski/Geyer for visualizing this so clearly. Your comments appreciated

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