How Does PET Plastic Recycling Work? Process, Technology, and Outcomes

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is among the most recyclable plastics globally, found in beverage bottles, food containers, textiles, and industrial applications. The world produces over 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, making PET recycling crucial. PICVISA provides benchmark technologies for the PET plastics recycling industry that set the standard in efficiency and quality assurance.

Why PET Recycling Is Important Now

EU regulations require PET bottles to contain at least 25% recycled content from 2025, rising to 30% by 2030. Norway achieves 97% PET bottle recycling rate. The US reached 33% in 2023. Post-consumer PET flakes sold in Europe for up to 1,690 euros per tonne in 2024. These regulatory and market drivers are rapidly scaling demand for efficient PET sorting technology.

The PET Mechanical Recycling Process

PET plastic recycling involves: selective collection and sorting by color, compacting into bales, grinding into small PET plastic flakes, washing with hot water and caustic soda, optical sorting of flakes by color and clarity, and conversion into sheets or new packaging. Chemical recycling through depolymerization is also emerging.

PICVISA's PET Recycling Solutions

PICVISA's ECOPACK optical sorter automatically classifies and separates plastics by composition (NIR), color (VIS), and shape using deep learning. The ECOFLAKE system enables precise PET flake separation using RGB CMOS cameras with NIR technology. Visit picvisa.com to discover how PICVISA can optimize your PET recycling operations.