| The Recycling market
Polyethyl terephthalate, commonly known as
PET, is a polyester, thermoplastic polymer. It is a plastic resin used to
make the strongest plastic for the manufacture of bottles and containers for
soft drinks, water, fruit juice, food, cosmetics, medicines, spirits and
hygiene and cleaning products among other things.
Having been used, this packaging makes up
part of the mountains of waste, representing 30% of the solid refuse
collected in towns. It is disposable but non-biodegradable so recycling is
the alternative to reduce the amount of discarded plastic material.
Currently the largest market for used PET is the manufacture of fibres to
make multifilament ropes, monofilament thread, and bristles for brushes,
among other applications. It is possible to process the polymer to extract
resins used in the production of paints.
The world market for PET packaging produced from recycled material is
undergoing wide expansion. Now, a growing up-market application is in
polyester fabrics. The textile Industry is testing the use of PET in the
production of jeans.
How much is recycled?
Around 19% of the PET resin produced in Brazil
was recycled last year, totalling 35,5 thousand tons. The recycled bottles
come from bottle collectors, factories and selective refuse collection by
town councils.
Official selective collection programs, which exist in, more than 80 towns
recover around 80 tons per year. Apart from disposable bottles, there are 85
million returnable soft drinks bottles on the market, produced from this
material.
The recycling cycle in the textile industry
Essentially, in the textile industry the plastic goes through the primary
recycling process, which consists of selecting, separating, cleaning,
grinding into uniform pieces, returning to the production of resin in the
same factory.
In this way, the ground material (called "flake") is stretched to form a
fibre. The spinning process prepares the thread for weaving or knitting,
and, following this, continues to the manufacture of garments. All of this,
thanks to PET's having the lowest level of waste when recycled.
The final result is a product of such high quality as that made from
non-recycled raw material, but with one fundamental difference: there is an
extremely important social and ecological value. To consume recycled
products is to value quality of life, offering another chance to recover the
environmental balance.
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