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The ubiquitous
a type of plastic used
widely in beverage
bottles and textiles
Of the 16 types of plastics handled by FCC
Environment CEE (formerly .A.S.A:), po-
lyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE and HDPE) and
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are the
most frequent ones. Various foils such as
plastic bags, packaging foils and PET bott-
les are produced from these types of plas-
tic.
When we buy a bottle of water, we hardly
ever think of what happens to it when we
drink it and then throw the bottle in the
trash bin. Even though it may seem stran-
ge, we could encounter the same bottle
again in the form of PET or converted into
something different. This is because some
materials come and go, especially plastic.
Once in the trash bin, FCC Environment
CEE or another waste management com-
pany, collects and transports the waste
(classified and not classified) to the sor-
ting line. There the plastics are sorted into
the following main categories: PET bottles
(transparent, white, green, blue and other);
foils; household products (detergents,
shampoos, etc.); and other types of plas-
tics.
The individual commodities are then com-
pacted into neat bales and prepared for
transport to a company that processes
plastics. One of these is General Plastic
a.s. based in Kolárovo, Slovakia. It is one of
the top processors of PET bottles and pro-
ducers of PET preforms in central Europe.
This is the destination of PET bottles not
only from Slovakia, but also from Hungary,
Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Roma-
nia or Serbia. About 900 tons of washed
flakes are produced monthly here, making it
the main commodity produced at this plant,
which also produces PET regranulate and
LDPE shrink film of which around 100 tons
are produced from 102 tons of granulate.
An input of 1.150 tons of compacted PET
bottles is needed to produce this amount
of flakes.
There are some materials that can be found
everywhere. One of them is plastic, which
has very diverse properties an applications.
Unlike natural materials such as wood,
plastic is manufactured synthetically by
means of the chemical conversion
of natural resources, such as oil.
Del PET se obtienen los copos lavados.
PET,