[greenyes] Depolymerization

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

Eric asks

  Does anyone know anything about this?

  Teijin Fibers Develops Process for Closed-Loop PET Resin.  The Japanese
  manufacturing company, Teijin Fibers, Ltd., has successfully developed a
  practical process that chemically decomposes used polyethylene
  terephthalate (PET) bottles and converts them into recycled PET bottles
  that can be used as beverage containers.

There are any number of depolymerization processes that break down the long
PET chains into its original monomers.

There is also one general characteristic of all of them so far, as attested
to by the market to date, and that is that the expense of breaking down the
laborously manufactured engineered plastics back into its constituent parts,
in order to clean it up for reuse, and then building it back up again will
always have an exceedingly difficult time competing against virgin
production, even before contemplating the additional costs of separating
collecting and sorting the used bottles.

On the other hand, there are, in a parallel world, a number of mechanical
processes that have been validated both as to their ability to produce clean
and clear recycled product to satisfy the FDA, as to their safety, and the
likes of Coke, as to their price and performance.

That may tell us something.


Peter
______________________________
Peter Anderson
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING Corp
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705
Ph:    (608) 231-1100
Fax:   (608) 233-0011
Cell    (608) 698-1314
email: anderson@no.address