Recycled PET – rPET
PET is a fantastic water-resistant material that is very practical in our everyday lives. It is light-weight and strong. Single-use plastic bottles are made from PET. However, this plastic material is made so well that it is very resistant to degradation. However, it unfortunately has a long life in our environment causing damages to our nature, animal life and eventually humans.
Every minute 1m plastic bottles are sold around the globe. But only 14% of these polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are being recycled. Consumers and companies world-wide have begun to see the necessity in recycling plastic and PET bottles. Recycling can transform the material into other products. Marketers see the advantages in marketing products made of recycled material, due to the environmentally positive signals to the consumer. Hence, many consumers here in the North have already bought their first snowsuits made of recycled PET bottles.
The challenge
The challenge with reclaimed PET is that it does not have the same quality as virgin material. The material can only be reused once or twice in standard recycling processes. Furthermore, oil is cheap now as so the virgin material, and therefore the bottles and other consumer goods of PET are cheap to produce. The good news is that scientists are developing “up-cycle” techniques that transforms the PET into more valuable composite materials. These techniques are so promising that it could kick-start the recycled plastics market.
With the new technology in reusing PET-bottles scientists have developed composite material that are more valuable than the virgin product. It can be used for car parts, turbine blades, surfboards, or snowboards. The material is called FRP, which stands for Fiber-reinforced plastics. It consists of recycled PET and molecules from waste plant biomasses. This composite is 2-3 times more valuable than original PET, and that makes the incentives to re-use much more interesting. The FRP is with this method 57% cheaper to produce, than with current recycling processes, since it uses less energy. Fiber-reinforced plastic is usually petroleum-based, but this new technique emits 40% less greenhouse gasses than that.
Euro Machinery buy and sell Recycling machines
Our company Euro Machinery buy and sell recycling and repelletising machines for the plastic recycling industry, and we follow the recycling development very close and are committed to adapting to new recycling methods. The machines that we sell transform post-consumer plastic waste into plastic granulate that can be reused in the plastic industry.
A machine producer like EREMA is one of the leading companies within developing machines that can recycle PET and PE-HD bottles, and deliver a high-quality end-product. Their technology VACUREMA® is used most frequently for this purpose, and its pre-treatment of PET flakes removes contaminations before the flakes are extruded to new pellets, which ensures a high-end pellet quality. The recycled pellets – rPET pellets- are food contact approved and can be re-used for new bottles.
Euro Machinery buys and sells second-hand EREMA machines, as well as many other well-known brands in the industry. If you want to sell you second-hand recycling machine, or if you are looking to buy, please contact us. We can find the right machine for you.
Available Recycling Machines
If you would like to look at our plastic recycling machines and equipment, please look here. If you would like to see our available EREMA recycling machines, please look here.
Sources to this article:
“’Upcycling’ plastic bottles could give them a more useful second life.” https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/cp-pb022019.php
“American scientists find better way to recycle plastic bottles.”
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2019/02/28/american-scientists-find-better-way-to-recycle-plastic-bottles.html