Mechanical Recycling of PET Bottles to Fibre
topic
Post-consumer PET bottle recycling to fibre: collection → sorting (NIR spectroscopy) → washing and decontamination → flaking → melt extrusion (IV loss 0.05–0.15 per cycle due to chain scission) → spinning of recycled polyester (rPET) staple or filament. Global rPET fibre production: ~10 million tonnes/year. rPET from bottles displaces virgin PET, reducing GHG by 30–50% and energy by 30–50%. Not truly circular (bottle to bottle is recycled; fibre-to-fibre recycling rate <1%).
Role
Bottle-to-fibre mechanical recycling is the dominant industrial model for rPET fibre production and a textbook case of cross-industry material flow. Its limitations — IV loss, downcycling, contamination — motivate chemical recycling research.