Nowadays, pet plastic recycling is an important project in many countries. In large and small waste recycling stations, plastic bottles have always been the most popular “waste”. Many people must be curious about how these plastic bottles were recycled and where they went after being recycled. What are plastic bottles made of? Let’s have a look today.

Contents hide
1 Raw materials of plastic bottles
2 Pet plastic recycling method
3 Application of Recycled Plastic Bottles
4 The significance of pet plastic recycling

Raw materials of plastic bottles

Most of the bottle body is made of polyethylene terephthalate, which is called PET for short. PET plastic is the best choice for making beverage bottles, because it is easy to shape, has good toughness, is impermeable, and is acid and alkali resistant. Compared with traditional glass bottle packaging, it is light in size and has high transparency. Compared with other waste products, disposable plastic bottles are easier to recycle and have a high recycling rate. PET plastic bottles are also easy to separate from other wastes. Most of them are colorless and transparent. They are thermoplastic plastics that are easy to reshape.

Pet plastic recycling method

Plastic bottles are recycled by the plastic recycling line. The recycled plastic bottles will be compressed and packaged first, which is more convenient for transportation. Then the squashed beverage bottle will pass through the plastic recycling crusher and become small pieces of plastic. Then these plastic fragments will be cleaned to remove the soil, labels, dirt, etc. attached to the surface.

Then the bottle body and the bottle cap are separated by density difference. Because the cap and body of the beverage bottle are made of different plastics. After a series of cleaning and screening processes, the remaining PET plastic fragments will be heated and melted to make small plastic particles. These granular plastics can be used as raw materials to produce new plastic products.

Pet plastic recycling line
pet plastic recycling line

Application of Recycled Plastic Bottles

Recycled PET plastic flakes made by pet plastic recycling equipment can be made into new packaging containers and plastic films. It can also be made into artificial fibers, fabrics, and clothes. It may not sound magical that the recycled plastic bottle finally turns into a piece of clothing. In fact, it is widely used in the textile industry. But when it is made into fiber, PET is generally called “polyester fiber” or “polyester”. When you hear these two names, you will feel familiar with them. If you look through the labels of clothes, you will see them.

With the progress of waste recycling technology, recycled PET plastic can meet the cleanliness level of food packaging through deep cleaning under high temperatures, vacuum and other conditions. Therefore, the waste beverage bottles can be recycled into new ones, which can truly realize recycling.

The significance of pet plastic recycling

Therefore, in our daily life, we must take the initiative to do a good job of waste classification and recycling. This can not only improve the recycling rate of recyclable plastics, but also reduce the pollution of plastics to the natural environment.