Japanese Firm Looks to Increase PET to Bottle Recycling

Teijin Ltd., one of Japan's leading makers of synthetic fibers, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, plans to recycle PET bottles back into PET resin of sufficient purity it can be used to manufacture new PET bottles.

As part of the recycling operations, from April 2002, Teijin will construct some new facilities, increasing the capacity of its factory in western Japan that recycles PET bottles into dimethyl terephthalate that is of equal purity to DMT manufactured from petroleum.

Teijin will also construct some new plants at the Tokuyama Factory using a newly developed process to convert DMT into high-grade terephthalic acid and then to convert the TPA into PET resin, allowing the complete 'bottle-to-bottle' recycling of PET bottles.

The method efficiently removes different plastic polymers contained in the bottle caps or labels, and any metal items or other impurities, enabling the production of TPA that is of the same purity as TPA manufactured from petroleum.

Initially, the new Teijin plants will have an annual recycling capacity of approximately 30,000 tons of PET bottles and produce about 24,000 tons a year of high-grade DMT. By next October, Teijin plans to double the annual recycling capacity, producing some 50,000 tons per year of DMT.

Through the "bottle-to-bottle" process, Teijin plans to produce 50,000 tons of PET resin for bottles per year. Combined with the output of the company's existing PET resin production line at its Matsuyama Factory of 40,000 tons, this will boost total annual PET resin production capacity to 90,000 tons.