Beverage bottles, recycling

In addition to limited use in beverage bottles, recycled PET packaging is used in nonfood bottles, trays, blisters, strapping, and other packaging applications. It also has a wide variety of nonpackaging uses, especially as fiber. 

Plastic and Metals Recycling Electrostatic separation has been inereasinglv applied to recover nonFerroiis metals From industrial plasties (telephone and eornrniinieation scrap). It also is an important step in the reeveling oF beverage bottles to reject anv remaining nonFerroiis metals. Both oF these reeveling applications make use oF roll-type ion-bornbardrnent separators (Fig, 19-61/ ),... 

PET has the second highest scrap value for recycled materials, second only to that of aluminum.1 A typical PET beverage bottle consists of PET (60 g), polyethylene (1 g), and label and glue (5 g). Therefore, the PET bottle scrap must be separated before the PET can be recycled. The bottles are sorted at a material recovery facility and compressed. The compressed PET bottles are then washed and converted to flake by grinding. The flakes may be converted to pellets in an extruder. The pellets are more suitable for material handling. Currently recycled PET is being used to make food and nonfood containers, straps, sheeting, and... 

Other industry efforts to "close the loop" of product manufacture, recycling, and resin reuse include Procter Gamble s marketing of a plastic household product container made from recycled PET. Johnson Controls, a major manufacturer of PET beverage bottles and containers, is also involved in promoting recycling efforts. Internally, the company recycles... 

Many of the polymers used to make plastics have two unique characteristics They are transparent and can be melted repeatedly to form new things. The transparency of plastic is important in many products. Food wraps, beverage bottles, headlights, and contact lenses are all made of transparent plastics. The ability of plastics to be melted and shaped into new things makes them suitable for recycling. 

PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) Most clear beverage bottles (used by many, including Dasani and Crystal Geyser) Best used in moderation recycle after one use. 

In most cases, before attempts are made to recycle plastic resins, the used parts must first go through a series of sorting processes. The purpose of these sorting processes is to separate the desired recycle plastic from possible contaminants in the incoming stream. These contaminants can take many forms. They include dirt, paper, glue, and metal as well as other recyclable plastics and even the same desired plastic but of a different color. The most postconsumer recycled plastic today is PET. This is the plastic from which all plastic soft drink beverage bottles are made. 

PET is useful polymer used for fiber, film, and plastic containers such as carbonated beverage bottles. Recently, the recycling of polymers such as PET after use is attracting the attention of many researchers aware of environmental problems and wishing to find ways to save earth resources. Previous studies showed that unsaturated polyester resins can be economically prepared from recycled PET and the resins may be useful for resin concretes (1 4). However, there is little information on the molecular features of the UPE resins. Thus, we synthesized various UPE resins from PET. Especially, the PET content, chain flexibility and degree of unsaturation of the resins were systematically varied and the effects of those variables on the mechanical properties of the cured resins and polymer mortars made therefrom were studied. 

The high cost of resins used in the production of polymer concrete (PC) makes the material expensive relative to cement-based materials. Not surprisingly, a recent survey ranked lower cost resins as the most important future need for PC [1], Recently, some work has been done on the production of unsaturated polyester resins based on recycled poly (ethylene terephthalate), PET [2], The PET wastes are typically found in used beverage bottles, and many states have passed legislation to collect and recycle these bottles. If specially formulated, the unsaturated polyester could be used in the production of PC [3],... 

Recycling plastics PET beverage bottles and HDPE milk and water bottles receive the most attention because they are the easiest to collect and sort. PET botdes require a drawn-out recycling process because they are made of several materials. Only the body of the bottle is PET. 

Strapping, nonfood containers, food and beverage containers, and engineered resins and moiding compounds, as shown in Fig. 16.8 As can be seen, use of recycled PET in food and beverage bottles has grown dramatically over the last decade. 

Fiber Sheet Film Strapping Food Beverage Bottles Nonfood Bottles Other Figure 16.8 Uses of recycled PET in the U.S., 2003-2013 [9]... 

To date, PHAs have been applied extensively for food packaging applications. Poly(3HB-3HV] shows suitable gas barrier properties to enable its application in beverage bottles. In addition PHA lattices can be used to coat paper and cardboard used in paper milk cartons [82]. Currently, drink cartons are often coated with polyethylene and/or aluminium foils to improve the barrier properties. As the resulting composite material is hard to recycle, PHA-coated cartons offer an interesting alternative. 

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