Plastic Products PET Recycling Specialized Recycling Technology Innovation

Recycling has become one of the key words in the plastic industry in China. Under the current conditions, the low level of recovery of most plastic varieties and the low degree of specialization are still indisputable facts. For PET (polyethylene terephthalate), the industry generally believes that used PET, especially beverage bottles and flexible packaging, is expected to be the earliest type of plastic for specialized recycling.

It is understood that since 2000, China's beverage industry has grown at an average annual rate of more than 20%. In 2004, the total output of beverages in China reached 29.12 million tons, an increase of 22.7% over 2003. Experts predict that in the next 15 years, the annual growth rate of China's beverage industry will exceed 15%. The continuous and rapid development of the beverage industry will inevitably drive up the demand for beverage packaging, and then produce a large number of PET wastes, including PET bottles and PET flexible packaging, so that PET waste recycling companies have adequate "raw material" guarantees.

According to experts, at present there are roughly four methods for recycling PET waste. The first is to separate used PET bottles and flexible packaging from ordinary waste plastics and implement separate recycling of PET waste. Special additives such as AP-P-1000 or AP-P-1100 are added during the recycling process to increase the thermal stability and impact strength of the recycled PET material to a level close to the performance of the new PET resin and to become a processed PET beverage bottle. And other soft packaging materials. The second is to separate the PET waste from the ordinary waste plastics and use it directly for the spinning weaving. For example, Jiangsu Xiake Environmental Color Textile Co., Ltd. will recycle used PET bottles. After cleaning, screening, sorting, and crushing, the high-temperature extruded spinnerettes will turn into polyester, then weaving, and finally make beautiful curtains, underwear, Quilts, sheets, gloves, etc. Third, PET waste is processed through special processing to make terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Fourthly, PET waste is mixed with common waste plastics and processed into plastic recycled pellets, which are used as raw materials for low-grade plastic products such as wire drawing and blown film.

Among them, the last method is feasible for the time being, because global PET oversupply in the past two years, its prices have fallen sharply, currently only about 10,000 yuan / ton, not as strong as ordinary PE, PP prices, so the recycled PET and ordinary plastics mixed recycling Economically cost-effective. However, in the long run, with the rapid development of the global, especially the beverage industry in China, the demand for bottle-grade polyester chips will increase, and the oversupply of PET will surely be alleviated. Ultimately, the waste of this high-grade polymer is not large. It may be recycled as ordinary plastics, which can only be accomplished through more profitable professional recycling.

In order to implement the dedicated recovery of PET waste, the first and key step is to separate it from ordinary waste plastics. This point, can we do it? The answer is yes.

Statistics show that in 2004, the demand for PET bottles in Asia reached 2.65 million tons, of which 1.4 million tons in China. This year, China's demand for polyester bottles will reach 1.75 million tons. Of these, polyester used to make various beverage bottles accounted for 80%, 1.4 million tons. Plastic bottles are among the oldest waste items that are most easily separated and recycled. Today, people are picking up used beverage bottles along major tourist attractions, roads and railways. In restaurants, internet cafes and other public places, someone specifically collected used plastic bottles. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Information Industry, in 2004 China had more than 100,000 Internet cafes, large and small, and grew at a rate of 5% per year. And a small cyber cafe with hundreds of computers cleans up more than 400 waste plastic bottles every day. According to this assumption, China will only recycle more than 1.5 billion waste PET bottles from Internet cafes each year, with a total of more than 25,000 tons. After the large and medium-sized cities implement the waste classification system, more than 50,000 tons of waste plastic bottles and PET flexible packaging are recycled every year. Moreover, as people's environmental awareness increases, more and more people join the ranks of consciously recycling waste bottles. In many schools where the author is located, students often use breaks or holidays to pick up waste plastic bottles from campuses, streets, parks, plazas, etc., and then sell them at a price of 0.07-0.25 yuan per “tattered king”. Can not find the original waste bottle everywhere.

Therefore, we have reason to believe that the rapid development of the global beverage industry will increase the demand for PET packaging, especially PET bottles, and may generate large amounts of PET waste. However, there is no need to worry that PET waste will cause environmental pollution because of the recycling technology. Due to factors such as market demand, early separation, and other factors, the PET waste recycling industry will not only achieve rapid development, but will also first realize the professional recycling of waste products among all synthetic resins. The relevant data has proved this point. Before 2002, the recycling rate of China's waste plastic bottles was less than 30%. It had risen to 45% in 2004 and is expected to exceed 60% this year.
Source: China Lecong Plastic Net