New applied sciences allow a colourful future for circularity of PET plastic

This text is sponsored by Eastman. 

Head to any grocery store and also you’ll see arrays of opaque bottles in vibrant colours containing every little thing from cleaners to juices to meals merchandise. The colourful and opaque plastic they’re created from is probably going polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Along with being a clean canvas for product branding, opaque and coloured PET is usually the perfect resolution for a number of sensible options, similar to:

• Blocking mild and UV rays, defending contents from injury
• Concealing inner contents
• Providing a light-weight possibility in comparison with its counterparts 

With such versatility and recognition, what’s the draw back? That comes all the way down to recyclability. The attention-catching colorants and light-blocking opacifying brokers utilized in opaque and coloured PET make conventional mechanical recycling a no-go. The common supplies restoration facility (MRF) isn’t geared up to course of or kind this plastic, and it will get landfilled as a substitute. 

But coloured and opaque PET is a beneficial post-consumer materials if we adapt our techniques to take advantage of it. And we should always as a result of there may be immense worth there, together with these 4 alternatives:

1. Recyclable immediately: Opaque and coloured PET is recyclable. Eastman is actively capturing these supplies for recycling immediately. Whereas recycling information for all coloured PET is unavailable, NAPCOR’s (Nationwide Affiliation for PET Container Sources) 2021 reclamation information for inexperienced PET, the most important class of coloured PET with robust demand from dependable finish markets, reveals us what is feasible. Its information estimates 31 % of inexperienced PET obtainable for recycling within the U.S. was processed into clear, recycled materials, prepared to be used in new merchandise. Along with the developed markets for inexperienced PET, Eastman is working onerous to supply finish markets for all colours. By selling wider recyclability choices, we are able to encourage materials decisions that align with sustainability targets.
2. Accelerating progress: Eastman is working a brand new world-scale molecular recycling facility that may course of 250 million kilos of waste plastic yearly. We have now already secured greater than 50 million kilos of non-clear PET feedstock, together with coloured and opaque supplies. 
3. True round financial system: Molecular recycling applied sciences allow the transformation of packaging into new food-grade packaging supplies, making certain a material-to-material course of. And The Recycling Partnership’s (TRP) PET coalition is particularly investing in initiatives to extend the gathering and sortation of opaque and coloured PET. TRP has already awarded three grants to allow processing of greater than 6 million kilos of opaque and coloured PET, and extra grants are deliberate. Collectively, we’re actively paving the best way for a future the place packaging waste turns into a beneficial useful resource.
4. Different to problematic plastic supplies: Opaque and coloured PET is required to increase the shelf life of assorted merchandise as a result of its UV properties defend high quality and cut back potential meals waste. Different options, similar to absolutely shrink-wrapped packages, current challenges with mechanical recycling streams, hindering the circularity we intention to realize, in the end providing extra issues than options. 

Excessive-density polyethylene (HDPE) is one other extremely recycled materials that’s utilized in coloured and opaque merchandise, however it makes use of extra plastic for bigger bottles in comparison with PET. Lastly, opaque and coloured PET offers a viable different to supplies similar to polystyrene (PS)/expanded polystyrene (EPS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), that are really problematic when it comes to well being, security and environmental impacts.

Opaque and coloured PET presents a chance for us to step up and meet the second. To reduce the affect of those supplies and take full benefit of what they provide, we should put money into constructing new techniques and increasing capabilities. As a result of giving new finish markets an opportunity to develop is how we bridge the gaps to sustainable progress.

The way forward for PET recycling

True to our rules, we’re targeted on attaining circularity by increasing recycling for hard-to-recycle supplies, similar to coloured and opaque PET, and creating worthwhile returns on investments. We’re making a beneficial finish marketplace for these supplies with out expectation of subsidization, decreasing supplies that find yourself in landfills.

At our Kingsport, Tennessee, molecular recycling facility, greater than 75 % of our feedstock has been contracted or is in negotiation on multiyear agreements with reclaimers, MRFs, manufacturers and others within the PET worth chain. We have now greater than 50 million kilos in stock — greater than half of which is coloured and opaque PET.

Be part of us in increasing the industrywide progress of the recycling system with new packages and applied sciences. Collectively, we are able to drive optimistic change and embrace opaque and coloured PET as a catalyst for a very round financial system.