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Introduction
The market share of PET drink bottles has been on the rise these past several years and is expected to increase further due to their convenience. PET burns nearly total to water and carbon dioxide and has a comparable calorific value like brown coal. Therefore it would be easy to say, that we should use post-consumer PET to produce energy. However, as more PET is used, new processing and recycling techniques are simplifying the recycling of this high quality plastic. PET bottles have been recycled into fibre and sheet products for a number of years now but the bottle-to-bottle techniques are now making an important contribution to greater co-efficiency.
The UK currently recycles about 14000 (6000 PET) out of 460000 tonnes of plastic bottles entering the waste system every year. Considering Sweden and Switzerland recycle 70-80 percent of their PET bottles, the UK is far behind much of Europe. ... Mechanical recycling is usually preferred in less diversified markets since it is more cost effective.
Challenges to PET recycling
• During the life cycle of a PET bottle, material characteristics change due to thermal influences resulting in a reduction of viscosity, which in turn leads to a deterioration of the stability and pressure resistance of the bottle. ... components of the filled liquids) into the PET material also presents a challenge, especially where the consumer has made alternative use of the bottle (e.
Approximate Word count = 1057
Approximate Pages = 4.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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