Impacts on the Environment

Stage	Positive Impacts on Environment	Negative Impacts on Environment
Extraction		Mining for non renewable resources that create polyester, (coal and petroleum) destroy natural habitats during the process.
Transportation		Fuel released by vehicles used to transport the raw materials before and after manufacturing pollutes the atmosphere.
Manufacturing	The process of creating polyester reduces energy consumption. Polyester itself does not leave behind many by products during production, therefore produces a low toxicity level.	Industries are multiplying and manufacturing polyester at a very fast rate, which produces pollution.
Packaging	PET bottles are recyclable which don’t require as much packaging as other polyester products.	To keep the product new and undamaged of whatever polyester may be used for, packaging is always excessive, and mostly ends up at a landfill.
Disposal	Recycled PET polyester from soda bottles is remade by re-melting and extruding the fiber. Polyester reduces the amount of solid waste sent to landfills.	Sometimes polyester is blended with other materials such as nylon, taking 30-40 years to decompose.

Thanks to Polyester being recyclable, it makes up 1/4 of today's bottle industry and the EF it leaves on the environment is not as harsh. 



*The information provided was brought to you by Khan in 2010.