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PET Bottles

The Life of a Plastic Bottle

A fulfilling life

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Sustainability Company

Across the globe different methods for recycling collection are in place. In Norway where the plastic recycling rate is 97% - the highest in the world - residents are charged a small fee on plastic bottles sold. They can get this money back by depositing the used bottle in a collection bin that scans the bottle’s barcode and returns the fee previously collected or they can return it to participating shops and gas stations for cash or store credit.

But where do your used plastic bottles end up once you’ve deposited them in a collection bin or set them on the curb for your city’s weekly recycling pick-up?

The answer: with manufacturers like Freudenberg to be given new life.

At our site in Novedrate, Italy we recycle 7 million bottles per day for use in our manufacturing process. The bottles are sorted, cleaned and crushed into flakes that are then melted and spun into a continuous yarn. This material is used to develop textiles used as roof waterproofing, thermal and acoustic insulation. The materials produced consist of 100% recycled PET and are of the same quality as new products. Recycling saves natural resources and energy. Instead of polluting the earth, the PET bottles get a second life as industrial products.  

 

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The Freudenberg Performance Materials (FPM) recycling plant in Novedrate, Italy. Every day, millions of PET bottles arrive from sorting plants across Europe.

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Trucks deliver the PET bottles in heavy, wire-bound bales weighing 400kg or 600kg. Compactly compressed, they are easier to transport.

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To begin with, bottle caps are removed, labels are peeled off and ‘foreign substances’ such as PVC, rubber or styrofoam are separated and sorted by detectors along the recycling conveyor, leaving only the polyester behind.

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The plant washes the bottles and crushes them into ‘flakes’: plastic crumbs with an average edge length of about ten millimeters.

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The PET flakes are then melted and spun into a continuous yarn. Various steps in the spinning process produce staple fibers.

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During the carding process, the fibers are combed into a loose, voluminous nonwoven and subsequently thermally bonded. The result is a homogeneous polyester nonwoven fabric, as can be seen in the picture.

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Glass fiber filaments are incorporated into the nonwoven. The glass filaments reinforce the nonwoven to stabilize it longitudinally. This enables the material to withstand extreme heat. Ultimately, it is destined for use as a substrate for bitumen membranes for roof sealing. It needs to be able to withstand high temperatures when the roofers weld the bitumen sheets together.

In addition to backings for bitumous membranes used in roofing, Freudenberg Performance Materials uses recycled PET to make solutions for automobiles, interlinings, insulation for outerwear, and much more.

Fiber

Soft, fine fibers are created from rPET pellets

We manufacture and sell more than 250 different products for the garment industry using recycled polyester as a raw material at our interlining and thermal insulation manufacturing sites in Germany, China, Taiwan, South Africa, and Korea. Shifting to the use of recycled polyester fibers has saved the equivalent of at least 228 million bottles over the past 5 years alone from going to waste. The range of our materials is extensive – but above all, their quality makes the crucial difference.

comfortemp

Comfortemp fiberball padding, one of 250 different products made from rPET by Freudenberg

For the building industry, carpet backings made from recycled content meet the high demands of carpet manufacturers to allow for creative, durable designs.

“More and more manufacturers are coming to value the use of renewable or recycled raw materials. We support our customers in this respect with carpet backings made from recycled polyester, which are also free from chemical binders.”

Matthias Göttel, Application Engineer at Freudenberg Performance Materials in Kaiserslautern, Germany

In close cooperation with our customers, Freudenberg Performance Materials is able to develop the spunbonded nonwoven from recyclables to meet the growing technical requirements of the latest carpet designs, such as adapting to new printing techniques. 

Carpet with Freudenberg backing

Comfortemp fiberball padding, one of 250 different products made from rPET by Freudenberg

Reduced Footprint 

Using recycled fibers has a dual benefit; they create a new use for what would otherwise be single-use disposed plastic bottles, and the manufacturing of recycled fibers has a lower environmental footprint as compared to virgin polyester fibers. Research shows that producing fibers from recycled post-consumer waste requires 75% less water, 47% less energy, and generates 55% fewer emissions than fibers made from the original petroleum-based raw material.

 

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