Our common plastic bottles and mineral water bottles are made of PET. As a major force in waste plastic recycling, PET is deeply loved by industry insiders, and its use fields after recycling are different. What are RPET flakes and what can they do?

What is RPET plastic?

Once the PET plastic bottles are baled and sent to a specific recycling plant, workers will use a bale opener to crush and sort the bales to remove any non-PET material. The PET is then pulverized and the PP and PE materials are separated from the PET (usually in a floating washing tank).

PET material that is denser than water sinks and is separated from the lighter cap and label material. The PET material is then cleaned and dried in hot wash tanks and friction washing tanks. The cleaned PET flakes are then further processed (pelletized for export or used directly for the production of new products, as required.

Recycled PET can be spun into fibers for carpets, clothing, fiberfill, or other materials.PET bottles can be recycled many times over.

What are the advantages of rPET?

  • rPET is safe to use in food and beverage packaging.
  • rPET bottles are clear and shatterproof.
  • rPET is lightweight compared to other packaging, helping to reduce transportation costs
  • rPET bottles are clear and shatterproof.

RPET flakes application

The main industries using rPET material include sheet, film, fiber, strapping, and food and beverage industries. We will introduce some examples for you.

Making recycled plastic bottles

After the PET bottle is used, its material properties remain good, and it is a good choice to be used as a raw material for bottle making after cleaning and drying. Because the intrinsic viscosity of PET resin for bottles is much higher than that of fiber-grade resins. Under the condition of ensuring the qualified impurities and water content, the intrinsic viscosity of the bottle remains above 0.75, which can be used to make plastic bottles for packaging liquid pesticides, oil, chemical reagents, etc.

Making polyester staple fiber

At present, the main use of cleaned and dried PET bottle flakes is to make polyester staple fiber, which can be used to produce a variety of materials and products such as clothing, felt, carpet, etc. Twenty 500ml PET bottles can make a pullover, and five 2L PET bottles can make a 0.09m2 carpet.

recycled PET
polyester staple fiber

Making woven bags

Recently, the research and development of making plastic woven bags with clean recycled PET bottle flakes as raw materials have become active, and the processing technology and equipment have gradually matured. Entrepreneurs who pay attention to this project in the industry have high hopes for this use, and believe that PET bottle flakes are in this field. The application will promote the upgrading of plastic products.

Making PET/PE alloys

Recycled PET flakes can be used to make PET/PE alloys. This alloy has the advantages of hardness, high strength, easy processing, and low cost. It is less brittle than pure PET and does not require drying before processing. This alloy has good fluidity and a faster cooling rate than HDPE, which is conducive to shortening the cycle of molded products. At present, this technology has gradually matured, and 3 companies in Europe have successfully developed it and put it into the market.