Polyplex and TPL have presented a bioriented (Biaxially oriented) polyester films containing 70% post-consumer recyclate.
The development of these films was made possible thanks to investments in chemical recycling. This technology uses post-consumer PET bottles. The bottle flakes are depolymerized to monomers and in the further polymerization transformed to PCR PET resins suitable for extrusion into BOPET films. This operation can be repeated indefinitely and the BOPET produced with this technology are suitable for direct food contact in accordance to USFDA and European legislation.
A common misconception is that the incorporation of recycled content creates a lower grade product, but this doesn’t have to be the case. As the company claims, production of BOPET through chemical recycling is without any significant performance challenges thanks to high-quality RPET being virtually indistinguishable from its virgin counterpart.
PET has higher collection rates than many plastics, providing a regular flow of feedstock for recycled PET. The use of post-consumer recyclate in BOPET supports the well-established polyester recycling stream by providing an additional output to recyclate. The use of RPET in production of BOPET films allows for a significant reduction of carbon footprint. It also drastically lowers the volume of plastic waste and the use of fossil fuel feedstock.
The production in an industrial scale of these films has already started. Various standard types of 70% PCR PET films are available from TPL’s distribution stock in Antwerp for delivery within a few days all over Europe. As well 90% PCR PET films are available on request.
