PET Plastic
PET Fiber
PET Flakes
Polyethylene Terephthalate, known as PET or PETE has many applications yet is mostly recognized as the clear plastic used for water and soda bottles and other food packaging.
"As a raw material, PET is globally recognized as a safe, non-toxic, strong, lightweight, flexible material that is 100% recyclable."
- ECO STAR.
PET is the most commonly accepted plastic so our job is to make sure we hold our local and national recycling facilities to a green standard. PETRecycles.org is here to help organize this effort.
PET Plastic can be produced at very little cost but is efficient and strong while light weight. It can be stretched very thin. It has excellent physical, thermal, electrical, chemical and mechanical properties that make it a very good material prized by different industries. It is also very recyclable and can be recycled more than once.
Industries & Applications:
Packaging
Food Packaging
Drink Containers
Toys
Clothes
Tools
Household Items
Insulation
Carpet
Textiles
For more info click here
Being that PET / PETE is so versatile, it is crucial we take every opportunity to make sure that it is recycled. PET has a decomposition rate of about 400 years. Right now, thermoformed PET and rigid PET are the most recycled plastic. Even though recycling rates are on the rise, markets are being disrupted from shifts in interest from PET recycled content buyers.
The biggest buyer of recycled PET is China. Millions of tons of plastic is shipped each year off-shore in the value of hundreds of millions of dollars. This may end at any moment.
Bottles are not even half of the disposed polyester plastic. We need the willpower to process our other disposed PET Plastics. Recycled PET is used by corporations to help reduce the amount of landfill plastics but numbers are not nearly high enough.
Here is another useful link to learn more about PET plastic.
PET / PETE bottles can be identified by the universal recycling symbol with a #1 inside. PET is the #1 most commonly recycled material with a growing number of consumers and reclaimers recycling PET thermoformed packaging.
PET fiber is the most common form of recycled PET. Once turned into fiber, it gets applied to all types of industries. PET fiber is used to make carpets, sleeping bags, wind sails and even automotive upholstery. It is crucial that the life-cycle continues and processes are built and maintained to push the fiber through a recycling process.
Using recycled PET as fiber is incredibly efficient given the properties it has. Certain products coming into the market now may be upsetting the recycling status quo. With PET as a fiber being unfamiliar with consumers and MRFs, we are finding a strong fight to change and update recycling processes to keep up to date with todays product innovations.
Click for more info on PET Sustainability
PET flakes are the product of the recycling process. To get to this point, the PET has already gone through numerous amounts of washing and grinding stages. There are many steps that the PET goes through once it reaches the recycling facility. In order to be ready for manufacturing quality, the flakes are washed and separated from all contaminants.
1. Bale Breaking 2. Bottle Separation 3. Pre-Wash Process 4. Label Separation 5. Metal & Mixed Plastics rejection 6. Manual Sort
7. Metal Detector Pass 8. Grinding 9. Washing 10. Sink & Float Separation 11. Final Rinse & Metal Detection 12. Mixing Silo
13. Storage Silo 14. Finished and Ready to Ship.
