Circularity Study on PET Bottle-To-Bottle Recycling

Sustainability

Elisa Mayrhofer¹  Manfred Tacker²  Elisabeth Pinter²  Andy Grant³  Vera Lahme³  Frank Welle⁴  Andreas Pechhacker⁵  Lukas Motloch⁵ 

[1] Department for Microbiology and Cell Culture, OFI–Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology, Franz-Grill-Straße 5, Object 213, 1030 Vienna, Austria;Department of Applied Life Sciences, FH Campus Wien, University of Applied Sciences, Helmut-Qualtinger-Gasse 2, 1030 Vienna, Austria;Eunomia, 37 Queen Square, Bristol BS1 4QS, UK;Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, Giggenhauser Straße 35, 85354 Freising, Germany;Starlinger & Co GmbH, Sonnenuhrgasse 4, 1060 Vienna, Austria;

关键词: circular economy;    polyethylene-terephthalate;    PET;    post-consumer recycling (PCR) material;    bottle-to-bottle;    recycling;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su13137370

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

With the European Green Deal, the importance of recycled products and materials has increased. Specifically, for PET bottles, a high content of recycled material (rPET) is demanded by the industry and consumers. This study was carried out in a lab environment replicating real-life industrial processes, to investigate the possible impacts on rPET quality over eleven recycling loops, aiming to use high amounts of rPET repetitively. A cycle included extrusion, solid state polycondensation (SSP), a second extrusion to simulate bottle production, hot wash and a drying step. 75% rPET and 25% virgin PET were extruded in eleven cycles to simulate a recycling and production process. Samples underwent chemical, physical and biological analysis. The quality of the rPET material was not adversely affected. Parameters such as coloring, intrinsic viscosity, concentration of critical chemicals and presence of mutagenic contaminants could be positively assessed. The quality of the produced material was likely influenced by the input material’s high standard. A closed loop PET bottle recycling process using an rPET content of up to 75% was possible when following the proposed process, indicating that this level of recycled content can be maintained indefinitely without compromising quality.

【 授权许可】

Unknown