Re: Target unit pricing - Here's the real point

In article <DkL9k.6574$i55.1426@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, clams_casino wrote:
>Don Klipstein wrote:
>
>>>>(I don't remember the figures, but the billions of one-use plastic 
>>>>water bottles take a horrendous amount of oil to manufacture.
>>>>      
>>>>
>>>US production is about 5B lbs/yr for bottles, but the paraxylene used
in 
>>>its production is a minor byproduct in the cracking of oil.   If all
the 
>>>paraxylene was eliminated, there would be an insignificant reduction in

>>>the US consumption of oil.
>>
>>  5B pounds per year sounds to me like about .03% of worldwide
consumption 
>>of all fossil fuels.
>>  Keep in mind that most plastic beverage bottles are made of
polyethylene 
>>terephthalate or polyethylene, and ethylene is obtained more from
natural 
>>gas - something else that USA im****ts and is experiencing 
>>hyperinflationary price increases of.
>>
>> - Don Klipstein (don@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)
>
>5B pounds (assuming perhaps half is paraxylene from oil) with a 30% 
>recycled rate is perhaps 500k barrels of new oil / yr.

  I get more like 5M.

  5B times .7 times .5 divided by 42 (gallons in a barrel) divided by 8 (a

fairly typical density of crude petroleum in pounds per gallon) is a 
little over 5M.

>The US uses 21M barrels of oil  / day.
>
>With the average being less than 1 plastic bottle of water per person 
>per day in the US, it would be far more effective to simply eliminate an 
>average of a mile of driving per day.

  Of course, it would be good if everyone could drive a mile a day less.  
Most days I don't drive combustion-engine vehicles at all.  I also buy 
maybe 3 bottles of water a year and recycle them, and I recycle all of my 
soda, milk and juice bottles.

  Meanwhile, I think that 30% recycling rate is something to improve 
bigtime on - not only for water bottles, but also for other beverage 
bottles, and those plastic grocery bags.

  It will also do good if we shop more for fuel efficiency when in the car

market, more for energy efficiency when in the market for refrigerators 
and air conditioners, and replace incandescents with CFLs where they work 
well.  (All of the general lighting in my home is from CFLs.)

  Meanwhile, how about the ****tion other than paraxylene?  You are 
assuming half of PET is paraxylene.  The other whatever-the-****tion-is 
also comes from fossil fuels, mainly natural gas.

 - Don Klipstein (don@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)