PET bottle recycling process and usage

PET is one of the most common plastics for beverage and food rigid packaging, and it is also the most widely recycled plastic. PET bottles are commonly known as PET bottles. PET bottles are made of plastic. The bottle body, bottle cap, and label film are made of three different materials: PET, PP, and PVC. Do not disassemble it when recycling, because dismantling will make the bottle cap disappear during the processing process and reduce the proportion of bottle cap recycling. Simply rinse, squash the bottle and put the cap on, and it's ready for recycling.

There are currently two recycling methods for PET bottles, one is physical (mechanical) recycling and the other is chemical (depolymerization) recycling. Both recycling methods need to go through recycling procedures such as classification, brick pressing, brick breaking, label removal, crushing, and flotation.

Physical (Mechanical) Recycling

The PET bottle is first broken into pieces, and the impurities are removed, and then the pieces are washed, dried and granulated.

The number of recycling and reuse is limited to 2-3 times, because the quality of recycled plastic pellets usually deteriorates slightly.

Advantage

1. Simple technology
2. Low cost
3. Less investment
4. The product is widely used
5. Greenhouse gas emissions are 9% lower than chemical recycling

chemical recycling

Depolymerize the PET flakes, separate and purify the basic monomers or oligomers, and re-polymerize and granulate.

The actual test upper limit of the number of recycling and reuse is about 7-8 times. With the fever of environmental protection issues, recycling technology continues to improve, and the goal is infinite recycling.

Advantage

1. Transparency and clarity
2. Chemical resistance
3. Thick-wall design bottle body can be made
4. Approved by FDA, efsa, JHOSPA, it can be used as a food container. (Note 1)

(Note 1) The PET recycling process can be divided into two levels according to different purposes: conventional recycling and super-clean recycling. When the recycled materials are used for non-food contact items, only the general recycling process is required; if the recycled materials are expected to be used in food containers or packaging that come into contact with food, an ultra-clean recycling process is required.

rPET application side

The recovered PET is firstly used in a high-quality manner, and the high-quality recycling mode of ""bottle to bottle"" can now be realized. Afterwards, the low-quality utilization is adjusted according to the quality of the plastic raw materials recycled and remanufactured many times. For example, 66% of the world's rPET recycled materials are used in the chemical fiber field, which belongs to ""downcycling"".

According to the information from the Environmental Protection Agency, the applications of recycled PET chips are mainly divided into 4 categories: spun fiber products, monofilament fiber products, packaging and non-packaging plastic products, among which spun fiber products (accounting for 55%), such as blankets, clothes , non-woven fabrics, filled cotton, sunshade cloth, industrial cloth (cotton); monofilament fiber products (accounting for 10%), such as wigs, zippers; packaging plastic products (accounting for 30%), such as packaging materials (such as transparent plastic boxes, Transparent clips for stationery), packing tape; non-packaging plastic products (accounting for 5%), such as brooms, toys, and car lamp housings. With the advancement of technology, the quality of PET recycled materials has been improved year by year, and the uses have become more diversified, and the recycling value has also increased.

source:

1. Environmental protection news section of the Environmental Protection Agency of the Executive Yuan
   Turn trash into gold, how much do you know about the recycling logistics of PET bottles?
2. Annual Report on Food and Drug Research
   Discussion on Plastic Bottle Recycling and Remanufacturing Technology"