PET bottles are one of the most common food containers. Some million PET bottles are sold each minute worldwide, most of which are thrown away—then incinerated or buried in landfills—after a single use. Ignoring caps and labels, however, PET bottles are made from a single raw material, making them an excellent target for recycling. Further, they are recollected at higher rates than other food containers and can be refabricated into various other items. Japan has one of the highest PET bottle recovery rates in the world; approximately 85% of the 25 billion PET bottles sold in 2018 were recovered^*2 and recycled as writing pads, weed control sheets, detergent bottles, and apparel products. However, safety and health considerations make it extremely difficult to perform horizontal bottle-to-bottle recycling for beverage use, so this is extremely rare.

In recent years, there have been increasing activities toward reducing the production volume of PET bottles, mainly in developed countries, such as more people carrying reusable bottles. Even so, the high functionality and portability of PET bottles makes it difficult to imagine the entire world suddenly going cold turkey on its PET bottle addiction. There is thus a need for new efforts toward recycling plastic bottles that could not be recycled by conventional methods.
References:
*1 The Guardian, published June 28, 2017, A million bottles a minute: world’s plastic binge ‘as dangerous as climate change [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change]
*2 The Council for PET Bottle Recycling [http://www.petbottle-rec.gr.jp/english/]

In recent years, primarily mechanical recycling companies have engaged in “bottle-to-bottle” production of PET bottles from PET bottles, but there are also urgent needs for commercialization by chemical recycling companies. BRING Technology^™ is superior in that it removes impurities, allowing a repeated cycle of PET bottle to PET bottle fabrication. PET bottles become not garbage, but a resource for creating new PET bottles. BRING Technology^™ demonstrates that PET bottles can be a continually circulating resource.

By combining the advantages of mechanical recycling with BRING Technology^™ to enjoy the best of both worlds, the dream of recycling every PET bottle in the world may one day become reality. BRING Technology^™ shows us the future of PET bottles as a sustainable form of packaging.