PET bottles are a convenient way to grab our favorite beverages, but they’re also a rather big burden. Each year more than 25 million tons of plastic bottles are produced.
Why? Although PET is one of the most commonly recycled materials in the world, some experts estimate that as little as 60% of what’s produced gets collected. And only about 6% of what’s produced actually gets turned back into new bottles.
A big part of the problem is that some forms of PET — like colored bottles and those black trays used for things like bento boxes and salads — can be quite difficult to recycle. That may soon change, however.
BP announced a breakthrough this week that promises to shake up PET recycling in a major way. The company says its researchers have developed a new process called BP Infinia that can reliably turn all kinds of PET back into material that’s “interchangeable with those made from traditional hydrocarbon sources.”
BP’s first Infinia recycling plant is under construction their Naperville, Illinois offices. If everything goes to plan, it fill fire up sometime near the end of next year.
VP of petrochemicals technology, licensing and business development Charles Damianides says that “BP is committed to fully developing and commercializing this technology.”
The Naperville facility isn’t just being built so that BP can try things out. It’s the first step toward a global rollout, and Damianides adds “we firmly believe that this innovation can ultimately contribute to making all types of polyester waste infinitely recyclable.”
BP won’t have any trouble getting its hands on previously-used PET to recycle, but it will be a much bigger win for the circular economy if we can start diverting the tens of millions of bottles each year that wind up in landfills and floating around in bodies of water to Infinia plants.
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