Do You Know About The Material Of PET

Post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) containers are sorted into different color fractions and baled for onward sale. PET recyclers further sort the baled bottles and they are washed and flaked (or flaked and then washed). Non-PET fractions such as caps and labels are removed during this process. The clean flake is dried. Further treatment can take place e.g. melt filtering and pelletizing or various treatments to produce food-contact-approved recycled PET (RPET).

RPET has been widely used to produce polyester fibres. This sorted post-consumer PET waste is crushed, chopped into flakes, pressed into bales, and offered for sale.

One use for this recycled PET is to create fabrics to be used in the clothing industry. The fabrics are created by spinning the PET flakes into thread and yarn. This is done just as easily as creating polyester from brand new PET. The recycled PET thread or yarn can be used either alone or together with other fibers to create a very wide variety of fabrics. Traditionally these fabrics are used to create strong, durable, rough products, such as jackets, coats, shoes, bags, hats, and accessories since they are usually too rough for direct skin contact and can cause irritation. However, these types of fabrics have become more popular as a result of the public's growing awareness of environmental issues. Numerous fabric and clothing manufacturers have capitalized on this trend.

Other major outlets for RPET are new containers (food-contact or non-food-contact) produced either by (injection stretch blow) moulding into bottles and jars or by thermoforming APET sheet to produce clamshells, blister packs and collation trays. These applications used 46% of all RPET produced in Europe in 2010. Other applications, such as strapping tape, injection-moulded engineering components and building materials, account for 13% of the 2010 RPET production.

In the United States, the recycling rate for PET packaging was 31.2% in 2013, according to a report from The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR). A total of 1,798 million pounds was collected and 475 million pounds of recycled PET used out of a total of 5,764 million pounds of PET bottles.