Plastics Recycling Beverage Bottles and Beyond

Research funded by the Plastics Recycling Foundation clearly shows that the technology and economics are favorable for the collection, sorting and reclaiming of generic resins from beverage bottles taken from the post-consumer waste stream. Further, the markets for the recovered polymers far exceed the amount of material used to make beverage containers. The technology has been transferred to the public and the infrastructure to recycle these materials is growing rapidly. This is a significant first step. It virtually doubles the volume of beverage containers (plastic and non-plastic) that can be economically recycled. Research funded by the Plastics Recycling Foundation is now focused on the development of the technology that is economically viable to recycle beyond beverage bottles.

This paper will briefly review the state-of-the-art for recycling beverage bottles and will address the strategies and research programs needed to recycle beyond beverage bottles.