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Northwest Ohio man helped invent the plastic bottle used for pop and the technology to recycle it

Tom Brady, a Maumee High School graduate and current Holland resident, worked on the team that invented the PET plastic bottle that is commonly used today.

HOLLAND, Ohio —

When picking up a bottle of pop at the store, most people end up grabbing a bottle that one local man helped invent.

Tom Brady, originally from Maumee, was part of the team that invented the modern-day PET plastic bottle. Brady graduated from Maumee High School. He played football in college when he was at Dartmouth, but never went professional.

Brady took a job at Owens-Illinois where he worked on a team to develop the early PET plastic beverage bottle.

"Back when I graduated, there was nothing but 12-ounce, or smaller glass or metal," Brady said.

One of the biggest challenges was making the bottles have a long shelf life and not lose carbonation. The bottles were originally straight, meaning they were missing the iconic curve of a glass Coca-Cola bottle.

"We developed the ability to make this into their trademark shape, which was a big deal back then and it still is," Brady said.

Brady eventually left Owens-Illinois to start his own company called Plastic Technologies. The company helped Coca-Cola become self-manufacturing. He said Coca-Cola still makes most of its own plastic bottles.

Plastic bottles became more popular, but they also started to create a lot of waste. Brady started another company called Phoenix Technologies to address this.

"Our company back in the mid-80s developed some of the first recycling technology," Brady said. "When I say that, I mean so that we could actually purify it and put it back in food contact applications."

Recycling technology existed, but the plastic was not able to be used for food or drink containers. This new technology and process of recycling created more opportunities to use the plastic.

Brady has lived in the Toledo area for most of his life and he now resides in Holland. He serves on different boards and stays active in the community.

Brady works hard to promote recycling. He said he hears a lot of people complain about the cost or required effort that comes with recycling. 

Brady said if people did what is asked, like not throwing plastic bags into recycling, it could be more economical and simpler.

He said he believes there should be more incentives, like a lottery system that pays people, to motivate others to recycle.

One thing Brady suggested focusing on is education as another way to help the environment.

"We would be solving these problems," Brady said. "We would have more people that could figure out the next recycling process that's better than the one I figured out."

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