PET bottles can be easily recycled and it is one of the polymers that has this capability. Recycled PET can be used in many ways and it is not so different from pure PET.
Recycled PET is used to make what kind of products?
Recycled PET for products such as clothing, home textiles or as car parts such as seat covers, sound insulation or industrial items such as roof insulation, new bottles for food products, non-food products, etc. They are mixed with the ratio of pure PET and recycled PET.
An interesting thing about PET products is that when you drink water in a mineral water bottle, you can wear it the next time. Some carpet weaving companies also use recycled fibers to make polyester carpets.
What are the characteristics of recycled PET products?
These products are very practical, economical and stylish. Today, over time, designers have come to the conclusion that this material has a very high potential for business.
You may ask yourself whether all plastics can be recycled or not?
If we want to answer this question, we must say that yes, all plastics can be recycled, but in some cases recycling plastics is not a logical thing.
This issue can have many reasons that do not include economic, technical, biological and environmental issues. Or sometimes, if we recycle some plastics, they don't have an acceptable durability.
In the following, we examine some of the reasons why all plastics are not recyclable:
- In some plastics, there are two types of plastic bags that cannot be separated and make recycling difficult and expensive.
- In some plastic products, food residue makes cleaning difficult from an environmental and economic point of view.
- Difficult transportation, low efficiency, high costs, low amounts of plastic, etc.
In general, the plastics industry is finding solutions to reduce these reasons so that all plastics can be recycled without restrictions.
What are some of the benefits of recycling plastics in general?
- By recycling plastic bottles, you help reduce environmental waste.
According to the reports that have been collected about plastic products, about 14% of the total plastic waste is collected from the oceans.
Therefore, if these plastic bottles are recycled, it will reduce the amount of garbage in the streets and oceans.
This issue is very important for the environment because each plastic bottle may take up to 1000 years to decompose and even after that it does not decompose completely.
They turn into small microplastics, these microplastics are pollutants and are dangerous.
- Recycled bottles save energy
By recycling plastic bottles, 75% less energy is used to produce bottles. This amount of energy saving saves energy equivalent to removing 360,000 cars from the road. In addition to saving energy, it also saves water. 6 times more water is needed to produce new plastic bottles.
What is the plastic recycling process?
In general, recycling has many steps, which we have written here in summary for you. If you request more details, read the following article:
What does plastic recycling mean and how is it done?
At first, for each stage of recycling, bottles or any plastic items that are suitable for recycling should be collected. These items can be collected from homes, businesses, etc.
In the next step, the items that are metal, glass, etc. should be separated from the items that are plastic.
Plastic bottles should also be separated according to the type of plastic used in them, which can be recognized by the use of resin codes inserted on the bottles.
After this step, the bottles are washed so that if there is any food or drink in them, it will be washed. Some bottles also contain chemicals and these bottles must be washed.
The next step is to grind all the bottles and break them into pieces. After the grinding stage, the bottles are made into small balls, each of which is the size of a grain of rice.
Then these bullets are packaged and sold to companies. These companies can melt them and then turn them into different products.
Right now, if you look around you, you will notice that many of the things around you are made of recycled plastics. Some of these items include toys, electronic devices, plastic devices, etc.