History of the PET Bottle

Dr. Tom Brady began his career at Owens-Illinois, Inc. in 1972, just as the carbonated soft drink companies began asking their suppliers to create and offer family-size carbonated beverage containers, which required an industry-wide conversion from glass and aluminum to plastic. As a fledging Senior Scientist, Tom, along with his O-I colleagues and along with other industry plastic package suppliers, accepted the challenge and, over just a 10-year period, created an entirely new industry to supply sustainable PET packaging to the beverage, food, and personal care product industries

When Owens-Illinois abandoned commercialization of the new and successful plastic PET container in 1985 because it was affecting O-I's glass container business, Tom left O-I and founded Plastic Technologies, Inc., with the initial goal of helping the Coca-Cola Company to self-manufacture its own PET plastic containers. Over its 35-year history, PTI has become a key technology development supplier and manufacturer of PET packaging for many of the major global brand owners, resin suppliers, and machine manufacturers, and PTI has also emerged as a leading industry source for training, manufacturing support, recycling technologies and laboratory testing. PTI is known for developing and commercializing sustainable plastic packaging products and strategies. Over its 35-year history, PTI has spawned 5 subsidiary recycling, manufacturing, and technology development companies, including Phoenix Technologies International, PTI-Europe, Preform Technologies, The Packaging Conference, and Guardian Medical USA, and PTI is planning for an exciting future by partnering with other leading industry recycling, manufacturing, and medical companies, here in the US and in Europe.

"The History of the PET Bottle" fulfills Tom's long-time desire to capture the history of the PET container industry, including many important stories which have been contributed by former PET industry colleagues. Thanks to all of those colleagues!
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Dr. Tom Brady spent 50 years in the plastic packaging industry and participated in the development of many of today's standard plastic packaging technologies. In 1986, Tom founded Plastic Technologies, Inc. to continue the journey that he began at Owens-Illinois in 1972. In 2009, Tom took a dramatic career turn to become Interim Dean of The University of Toledo's College of Education, and today he remains committed to promoting and improving education, from PreK through Higher Education. His charitable and community service work includes serving as a board member for the Northwest Ohio Regional Growth Partnership, Toledo Port Authority, Lourdes University, Toledo Symphony, University of Toledo, and the Ohio Governor's Third Frontier Commission, among others, and Tom and his wife, Betsy, continue to support entrepreneurial, teacher education, and engineering technology initiatives at the University of Toledo, Dartmouth College, and the University of Michigan. Tom earned his BS and MS degrees from Dartmouth and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He holds six U.S. patents, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Plastics Industry in 2010, was inducted into the Plastics Industry Hall of Fame in 2012, and has received numerous other honors, including being named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1989, and Philanthropist of the Year with his wife, Betsy, in 2006.

Dr. Tom Brady is Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI) and five other PTI companies, including Phoenix Technologies International, PTI Operations LLC, PTI–Europe SARL, Guardian Medical USA, and The Packaging Conference LLC (www.thepackagingconference.com), a joint venture company which organizes international technical conferences. Founded in 1985, the PTI companies are recognized for expertise in plastic packaging, plastic product and process technology development, plastics recycling, and specialty product manufacturing. (www.plastictechnologies.com)

In 2019, Phoenix Technologies (www.phoenixtechnologies.net) was acquired by Far Eastern New Century (www.fenc.com), a Taiwanese supplier of virgin and recycled PET with operations in Japan, the Philippines, and China, and in 2021 PTI, PTI-Europe (www.pti-usa.com), and PTI Operations (www.preformtechnologies.com) were acquired by SIPA Solutions (www.sipasolutions.com), an Italian supplier of plastic processing equipment with operations in China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and Brazil. Guardian Medical USA (www.guardianmedicalusa.com) remains a Toledo-based startup company that supplies proprietary sterile medical packaging.

Prior to founding PTI, Dr. Brady was Vice President of Plastics Technology for Owens-Illinois, Inc. (O-I) where he directed the technical activities for all O-I's plastic product lines.

After serving on the Board of Trustees at both the Medical University of Ohio and the University of Toledo, Dr. Brady served as the Interim Dean for the Judith Herb College of Education at The University of Toledo (UT) from 2009-2011 and he continues as an advisor to UT's Colleges of Engineering, Education, and Arts and Letters.

Dr. Brady served on the Ohio Governor's first Third Frontier Advisory Board, is currently a member of Ohio's I-Corps review board and serves on the Northwest Ohio Regional Growth Partnership board. He is a member of the Imagination Station's Science Society, the Toledo Museum of Art Business Council, the UT Medical Research Society, and remains a fellow on the Toledo Association for the Performing Arts board.

Dr. Brady was a founding board member of the Toledo Technology Academy, served on the first Toledo School for the Arts board, and still serves on the boards for Toledo Early College and Lourdes University, a private 4-year liberal arts university in Sylvania, Ohio.

Dr. Brady received BA and MS degrees in Engineering from Dartmouth College and a PhD in Plastic Materials Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1972. He was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year in 1989, was inducted into both the Society of Plastics Industry Hall of Fame in 2012, and PTI received the Small Business of the Year Award in 1995.

Tom and Betsy have 3 married children and 12 grandchildren and Tom spends his spare time supporting PreK-12 and higher education, playing the piano, restoring classic cars, and in his woodworking shop.