In Rostock in Germany, Veolia has developed a recycling process for PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) plastic bottle, allowing direct reuse of recycled bottles for a new food use. Veolia transforms every year one billion plastic bottles to produce new bottles.
After use, the bottles are collected, transported to the treatment plant, and pre-sorted by color. They are subjected to a hot wash, converted into flakes and, once purified, they are delivered to the bottle manufacturers. Using recycled PET allows a 70% decrease in CO2 emissions compared to virgin PET.
Key figures illustrating solution deployment and results
Over 1 billion bottles recycled each year
One metric ton of recycled PET bottles is equivalent to 1,5 metric tons of