WHY PET

WHAT IS PET?

PET, which stands for polyethylene terephthalate, is a form of polyester (just like the clothing fabric). It is extruded or molded into plastic bottles and containers for packaging foods and beverages, personal care products, and many other consumer products. PET is a very suitable material to many products because it is resistant to attack by micro-organism, and does not react with food products. It is approved save by health-agencies around the world as a food grade material

PET is 100% Recyclable

PET plastic is made from one of the few polymers which can be recycled back into the same format. This means that old PET plastic bottles or packaging can be easily recycled into brand new PET plastic bottles or packaging, with almost no discernable difference between the two items. Products commonly made from recycled PET include new PET bottles and jars, carpet, clothing, industrial strapping, rope, automotive parts, fiberfill for winter jackets and sleeping bags, construction materials, and protective packaging. The picture on the right is toy brand Lego, they have created its first prototype bricks using recycled PET plastic from discarded bottles. Created as part of the Danish company's drive to make all of its products from sustainable materials by 2030, the brick prototypes were created from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET).

PET plastic is a safe and hygienic packaging solution, it doesn't react with food or liquids that come in contact. PET plastic is unique, unlike the others, it is not single use. It is 100% recyclable, versatile, and made to be remade. It can be recovered and recycled into new products again and again, reducing the amount of resources wasted. There are two main types of PET recycling: chemical and mechanical reycling. The most widely used is the mechanical recycling, which consists of obtaining post-consumer bottles and processed into PET flakes that are used to make PET resins. Some of the resins are used directly or mixed with virgin polymer in the subsequent transformation process to obtain other end products. 

The key impact of rPET is in its creation – reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 79%, requiring less energy to produce when compared with Virgin PET. This gives rPET a far smaller carbon footprint, at under a quarter of regular PET, 0.45 of CO2 per kg vs. 2.15 CO2 per kg.

 

 

 

Source: Based on packagingeurope.com