What are PET bottles?

When talking about plastic bottles or to be more specific, PET bottles, people always think they should disappear because of their negative effects on nature as nowadays environmental awareness is becoming more and more popular. However, has any one though of whether PET bottles are really harmful to nature or not?

The answer is definitely negative, if they are harmful to nature, then why are they so popular and have become one of the most popular packaging since they began to be used as a container of carbonated beverages in 1970s? Now PET’s safety for beverage, food, personal care, household and pharmaceutical and medical applications are widely acknowledged by health authorities across the world.

What does PET stand for?

PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate, is a type of resin and a form of polyester which is a strong, stiff synthetic fibre that comes from the family of polymers made with ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid.

There are some important characteristics of PET, such as strength, thermo-stability, gas barrier properties, transparency, lightweight, shatterproof and recyclable. Due to these characteristics, PET bottles production accounts for around one-third of global demand and almost every plastic water bottle in the world is made of PET.

What is PET, Technically?

Polyethylene terephthalate items referenced are derived from terephthalic acid (or dimethyl terephthalate) and mono ethylene glycol, wherein the sum of terephthalic acid (or dimethyl terephthalate) and mono ethylene glycol reacted constitutes at least 90 percent of the mass of monomer reacted to form the polymer, and must exhibit a melting peak temperature between 225°C and 255°C, as identified during the second thermal scan in procedure 10.1 in ASTM D3418, when heating the sample at a rate of 10°C/minute. (Source: National Association for PET Container Resources)

How did PET come about?

PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) was first invented back in the 1940s, and the aim was originally developed for use as textile fibre. It took about 30 years for PET to begin to be used for food and beverage packaging since invented, PET has grown its popularity as packaging material since 1970s.

How to identify PET bottles?

Actually, it is quite simple to identify PET bottles, what you should do is just to find a triangle with three arrows and a number 1 inside the triangle on or near the bottom of a bottle. The triangle with a number 1 inside is the symbol of PET bottles and it also means it is recyclable plastic and the three steps of the recycling process of PET bottles.

Is it safe to use PET bottles?

Absolutely, PET was approved as safe for food and beverage content by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other similar authorities throughout the world several decades ago. In other words, PET has been used to package food, beverages for more than 40 years.

As mentioned above, for many years, many people have a misunderstanding for PET bottles which is PET bottles are harmful to our environment, however, PET is eco-friendly that means PET can be 100% recyclable and to be more precise and straight: PET does not produce or contain any dioxins, plasticizers or Bisphenol A (BPA).

PET bottles versus Glass bottles

People may think glass bottles are much better for beverage and food than PET bottles, but the answer is definitely no. As mentioned earlier, almost every plastic water bottle in the world is made of PET which means PET bottles are much more widely used for beverage and food products. Beyond no doubts, there are some benefits of PET caused such situation.

People regard glass bottles are more sustainable just because they can be cleaned and reused easily, but do not forget that PET bottles can be cleaned and reused as well, furthermore, PET bottles can be recovered and recycled again and again, then it is so easy to tell which is more sustainable.

On the other hand, glass bottles have a disadvantage to store food that PET bottles do not have, that is the growth of biofilms which are an undefined microbial community. It means these biofilms are a collection of one or many kinds of microorganisms that adhere to surfaces of glass bottles which can result in many types of infectious diseases due to poor sanitary conditions, it is definitely a serious threat for public health around the world. Thus, effective actions should be taken to get rid of biofilms.

Moreover, PET bottles are more durable than glass ones which can be easily broken and PET is 20 times lighter and 5 times cheaper than a glass bottle. When back to the manufacturing process of glass and PET bottles, the manufacturing of glass bottles is more intense on the environment which means glass manufacturing process creates more CO2 and then pollute the air.

PET bottles versus Stainless Steel bottles

Stainless steel bottles have several advantages compared with PET ones, for examples, stainless steel bottles are corrosion resistant, they do not leak any chemicals when exposed under sun, they can be also 100% recyclable. But their disadvantages are obvious as well, stainless steel bottles are much heavier to carry, the manufacturing process is more intense, the same problem goes for glass bottles, and you can not see the content inside until you open the bottle because stainless steel bottles are opaque.

PET bottles versus Aluminium cans

Aluminium cans are a good option for food and beverage products as they are very light and they can be recyclable. The problems for aluminium cans go for manufacturing process and reusage.

As we all know, aluminium comes from a rock called bauxite and it needs a lot of natural resources to produce aluminium and generates high carbon footprint, this manufacturing process leads to air and water pollution of our planet. It is very hard to reuse aluminium cans because they are always thin and can be out of shapes very easily, imaging how difficult to reuse a coca cola can.

Benefits of PET bottles

After introducing what PET bottles are and their characteristics, let’s summarize the benefits of PET bottles.

• 1. Cost-Effective: Low cost, easy to produce and require less energy to transport due to lightweight.
• 2. Safe: Shatterproof and not hazardous if broken or damaged.
• 3. Reusable: Can be reused many times.
• 4. Recyclable: Can be recycled over and over again.
• 5. Sustainable: More and more PET bottles are made from recycled PET.
• 6. Distinctive: Can be made into different shapes in order to make your brand stand out of competitors.
• 7. Production Efficiency: Manufacturers can produce tens of thousands of bottles in different shapes or sizes within one day.

To select PET bottles for your products is a good choice to make our world more sustainable. We, Zhuojing Packaging is a leading PET bottles provider, mainly for pharmaceutical, nutritional and personal care industries. Please feel free to contact us for any question, concern or custom design packaging solution, we will try our best to serve you no matter where you are and how small the order is!