PET Packaging
What is PET?
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a chemical name for polyester. PET is a widely used clear, strong and lightweight material that is used for packaging of foods and beverages, especially soft drinks, juices and water.
Is PET recyclable?
Approximately 40% of PET's energy use is attributable to its "resource energy" that can reused through cost-efficient recycling of PET plastic.
Recycled PET plastic packaging can be used to make new PET packaging or other products, as well as plastic fibre, which is can later be used in production of clothing, footwear, carpets, ropes, etc.
90% of all PET packaging placed on the market was collected during the lifetime of the deposit system. This allows to save over 67 k Kwh of energy annually.
What is the history of PET bottles?
In the late 1950s, researchers found a way to stretch sheets of PET and create PET film, which is now used for production of various packaging, printing, photo and video films.
Over time, the technology was developed for blow-stretch moulding PET into bottles. The first PET bottle was patented in 1973.
Interesting facts:
- It takes 400-1000 years for plastic to decompose naturally.
- 34 million disposable PET bottles enter the world’s oceans every year.
- In order to clear 500 thousand tons of plastic waste in the ocean, one would need 66 thousand garbage trucks.
- On the Baltic coast, plastic waste accounts for up to 83% of all waste found.
- With the introduction of the deposit system, there has been a significant reduction in plastic waste on the Baltic coast. For example, before the introduction of the system, an average of about 3 plastic bottles were found during observations on a 100-meter stretch of the beach, while one or even fewer beverage packaging units were found after the introduction of the deposit system.
- One tonne of recycled plastic saves about 23 cubic meters of landfill space. PET packaging collected throughout the existence of the deposit system would fill the Bent Pyramid of Pharaoh Sneferu, one of the earliest pyramids in Egypt.
