[greenyes] new PET bottle recycling method ?

["Eric Lombardi" <eric@no.address>]

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.  In conventional PET recycling,
used bottles are melted to produce resin and reformed into other
products such as trays, sheeting which do not require high transparency.
The new process dissolves recovered PET down to the molecular level and
refines it to yield a highly pure raw material for PET resin equivalent
to that produced directly from petroleum.  Teijin plans to produce
50,000 tons of recycled resin from 62,000tons of used PET bottles
(equivalent to 2 billion 500 ml PET bottles) annually.  This complete
system will reduce petroleum consumption and eliminate the current need
for PET bottle incineration, reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the
process.  (JFS Digest, April 26, 2004,
http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=609&UserNum=&Pass=&Adm
inPass=&dp=data_e.html)


Eric Lombardi
Executive Director
Eco-Cycle, Inc