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My closing statement read: "There is only one real effective and incentive method to encourage environmentally sound collecting of beverage one-way containers and it is deposit in combination with High-Tech R&D resulted Reverse Vending Machines!

Closing the open loop (PETCORE COLUMN)

PET is a product unlike any other and it behaves unlike any other. Experience has it that if you pull a thread of whatever material, the harder you pull it, the faster it breaks.

With PET it is a different story: have you ever tried to draw a strand of extruded resin? The harder you tug, the harder the strand becomes.

However, this is not the only peculiarity of PET. Take a look at post-consumer packaging recycling.

The vast majority of packaging materials can be recycled back into their original shape and form - just think about glass recycling.

Up until now, it was not exactly so with PET. Recovered post-consumer PET bottles were processed and then manufactured into an array of products having little to do with the original beverage container: reclaimed PET flakes and pellets were turned into strapping, padding, carpet, fleece etc.

Oddly enough this type of recycling, also known as open loop recycling, is still considered by some environmental analysts as the “ugly duckling” of recovery. Indeed, some still favour the closed loop formula where 100% of the material is turned back into the original product’s shape and form.

Well, the development of a PET bottle-to-bottle process, a true consumer demand, has also become, over the years, a reality for PET. Strapping, fibres and the other outlets can rest assured though - they will remain a crucial focus for RPET.

Bottle-to-bottle can be achieved thanks to the high levels of efficiency in some recovery processes when it comes to thorough cleaning of post-consumer bottles. The recovered flake reaches such a grade of purity that it is suitable for food contact applications. Nevertheless, when it comes to recycled material and food contact, not all European countries share the same point of view. In the absence of a common regulatory EU approach, closed loop recycling has to face this additional test.

But let’s come back to our point of departure: open or closed loop recycling? Open loop recycling is neither better nor worse than closed loop recycling. It is just a different way of tackling the challenge of packaging waste recovery, taking into account the specific characteristics of a material that is thoroughly unique.