PET water bottles

Polyesters, The healthiest trend coming out of the plastics industry— personal health, that is—is the ubiquitous PET water bottle. Medical doctors all agree that the increased daily consumption of water enhances well-being. The improvement in producing PET, polyethylene terephthalate, in the 1970s, led to this pervasive replacement of glass bottles because of the cost and portability. 

On the other hand, there are also studies showing the effects of UV irradiation on the change of migration characteristics of the matrix polymer, (i.e., effect on the migration of phthalate ester plasticisers from clear PET water bottles [87]), and some data are provided on the effects of ionising irradiation on polymer additives, monomers and polymers themselves in general [88]. 

Two reaction vessels were prepared one containing 100 mL of seawater and approximately 5 g of 1 cm sterilised pieces of PET water bottles, the second with twice the volume of seawater and number of PET tokens. Further details are published elsewhere [39]. Individual PET pieces were sampled from the flasks at the end of nine months. Samples were cleaned by sonication in 70% ethanol for one hour. XPS analysis was then performed, both on the modified samples taken from reaction vessels and on reference PET samples not exposed to bacterial interactions, to detect modifications to the polymer surface made by the bacteria. XPS analysis was performed with the same parameters as described in section 2.1... 

E.7.5 Calculate an LCA for an aluminum reusable water bottle and compare the results to the LCA for PLA and PET water bottles. How many times would you have to reuse an aluminum water bottle to equal the GHG emission and waste generation of PET plastic water bottles. 

The polymers discussed to this point are reasonably linear. They can be remelted or redissolved and are members of the general class of thermoplastic polymers. For example, a used PET water bottle can be chopped into flakes and then remelted and fabricated into another article such as a flower pot, golf tees, or many other items. These thermoplastics are predominantly linear. Even in the case of polyethylene, where there is often some branching, they soften when heated and can be reshaped or molded into new articles. However, if the polymer is not linear but three dimensional it cannot be reshaped. These polymers are formed in the mold and take a set. After the polymerization is complete, they cannot be remelted and reshaped. These are called thermoset polymers or thermoset resins. 

The final category of end markets is for injection moulding/other outlets. These applications account for less than 20,000 tormes/year of rPET at present and are very varied. rPET can be filled with glass fibre, for instance, and injection moulded to form complex engineering components. It is also injection moulded to form the barrel of the Pilot B2P (Bottle2Pen) Figure 5.2. This clear cylinder is designed to look like a PET water bottle, complete with a label panel, and is a quality pen with the body made from 100% rPET. 

Carbonation appears to affect antimony migration from PET water bottles. Several researchers have reported higher levels of antimony migration in carbonated compared to non-carbonated mineral water (Keresztes et al. 2009) or to ultra pure water, especially at higher storage temperatures (60 °C) (Bach et al. 2013). 

Molding includes bottle blow molding, and the continued move toward PET for use in soft drink and water bottles depresses growth slightly, although the trend remains positive. 

PETE Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) soft drink and water bottles 1.40 240... 

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. 

Blend of linear and branched PET for high-quahty mineral water bottles Greaves et al., 1993... 

The largest chemical manufacturing process that utilizes a homogeneous catalytic liquid phase oxidation is the production of purified terephthaiic acid (PTA) (1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid) from/)-xylene (pX) (1,4-dimethylbenzene) (Eq. (4.1)) [1]. PTA is a commodity chemical with a demand of 51 million tons per year in 2014 [2] and is mainly used in the production of polyethylene tereph-thalate (PET), which is made by polycondensation of PTA with ethylene glycol (Eq. (4.2)). PET is used in numerous applications, ranging from fibers to water bottles. 

At the end of life, the material may be polluted by environmental substances (e.g. mixing of waste), by secondary use of the material (e.g. a water bottle used to stock a pain solvent or petrol) or even during pick-up (e.g. mixing of shampoo bottles and PET bottles containing frait juice). These pollutions affect the reuse potential of these materials even after decontamination (solvent washing and vacuum drying of pellets) for subseqirent contact with food. Currerrtly, these practices are orrfy authorized for PET [EFS 11, EUR 08],... 

When the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health compared the amount of antimony in waters bottled both in PET and in glass, the concentrations in PET bottles were somewhat higher, but still well below the allowed maximal concentrations (1% of the tolerable daily intake determined by the WHO), and it is concluded that the health risk involved is negligible. A recent study found similar low concentrations for antimony in the water bottled in PET [58]. 

PET Soda/water bottles, beer cans, food jars Possible contaminant migrating acetaldehyde... 

Polycarbonate (PC) is highly transparent, and very strong and tough. It has been the material of choice for reflllable 5-gal water bottles but is beginning to experience competition from PET in this market. It also has a number of applications in medical packaging. 

The sources of HDPE in the U.S. MSW stream are shown in Fig. 8.24. For many years, HDPE was the second most recycled plastic, but it overtook PET several years ago. In the United States, the EPA reports that the recycling rate for HDPE milk and water bottles was 31.9 percent in 2003, a total of 460 million pounds. Other HDPE containers were recycled... 

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