Recycling of PET bottles

Bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET, sometimes PETE) can be "recycled" to reuse the material out of which they are made and to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. PET is semiporous and absorbs molecules of the food or beverage contained, and the residue is difficult to remove: Heating the plastic enough for sterilization would destroy it. Therefore, most recycled bottles are used to make lower grade products, such as carpets. To make a food grade plastic, the bottles need to be hydrolysed down to monomers, which are purified and then re-polymerised to make new PET.

In many countries, PET plastics are coded with the resin identification code number "1" inside the universal recycling symbol, usually located on the bottom of the container.

PET is used as a raw material for making packaging materials such as bottles and containers for packaging a wide range of food products and other consumer goods. Examples include soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, detergents, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products and edible oils. PET is one of the most common consumer plastics used. Polyethylene terephthalate also can be used as main material in making paper.

The empty PET packaging is discarded by the consumer after use and becomes PET waste. In the recycling industry, this is referred to as "post-consumer PET." Many local governments and waste collection agencies have started to collect post-consumer PET separately from other household waste. Besides that there is container deposit legislation in some countries which also applies to PET bottles.

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Wikipedia