Premium
Effect of recycled content and rPET quality on the properties of PET bottles, part I: Optical and mechanical properties
Author(s) -
Alvarado Chacon Fresia,
Brouwer Marieke T.,
Thoden van Velzen Eggo Ulphard
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
packaging technology and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1099-1522
pISSN - 0894-3214
DOI - 10.1002/pts.2490
Subject(s) - bottle , materials science , polyethylene terephthalate , contamination , linear correlation , particle (ecology) , composite material , poly ethylene , ethylene , chemistry , mathematics , ecology , biochemistry , statistics , oceanography , biology , geology , catalysis
The effect of recycled content and type of recycled poly (ethylene terephthalate) (rPET) on the haziness; colour parameters L*, a*, and b*; total colour change; ultraviolet‐visual spectrum (UV‐VIS) absorption; and environmental stress cracking (ESC) of PET bottles was studied. Three series of PET bottles were made at a small scale production facility with same type of virgin PET and three different types of rPET with recycled contents of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Also, the particle contamination of the produced PET bottles was studied by dissolving bottle fragments and counting the insoluble particles. A linear relationship was found between the haziness of PET bottles and the particle contamination, with a coefficient of determination of 0.96. Linear relationships were also found between the colour parameters L* and b* and the particle contamination of the PET bottles, but the slope differed for each type of rPET. The origin of rPET (mono‐collection or cocollection) seems to be the crucial factor determining particle contamination and colour of the produced bottles. No correlation was found between the recycled content and the incidence of ESC. However, PET bottles in which high intrinsic viscosity (IV) values were measured showed lower chances of ESC than PET bottles with low IV values