Teijin Fibers Ltd. Develops Complete PET Bottle Recycling System

Teijin Fibers Ltd., a major Japanese polyester manufacturer belonging to the Teijin Group, successfully developed a practical process using new technology that chemically decomposes used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and converts them into recycled PET bottles that can be used as beverage containers. This "bottle-to-bottle" recycling process was brought into operation in November 2003.

As soon as the Food Safety Commission gives the green light, recycled PET bottles will start appearing in supermarkets and convenience stores during the first half of 2004.

In conventional PET bottle recycling processes, the used bottles are pulverized and melted to produce recycled resin, which is reformed into other products. This method, however, cannot completely remove impurities from the resin, resulting in lower transparency. This defect limits applications of the recycled resin to clothing fibers, plastic sheeting, plastic egg cartons, trays and other products that do not require high transparency.

The new chemical decomposition method, by contrast, dissolves recovered PET bottles down to the molecular level, then refines them to yield a highly pure raw material for PET resin equivalent to that produced directly from petroleum. Thus, the decomposed material can be used to produce recycled PET bottles that are equal in quality to conventional PET bottles produced from petroleum.

Teijin Fibers plans to produce 50,000 tons of recycled resin from 62,000 tons of used PET bottles (equivalent to 2 billion 500-ml PET bottles) annually. This complete recycling system will reduce petroleum resource consumption and eliminate the need for PET bottle incineration. This system is expected to help significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.




Posted: 2004/04/27 02:12:55 PM
Japanese version