Without PETYield, recycled PET can only be used once, for a total of two use cycles from virgin raw material to landfill. This is compounded by a ~7% or higher rate of process losses and scrap losses when processing PET, and increasing dramatically when recycled material is introduced to the process. Overall this limits the reusability of one of the most in-demand materials in the European Union, and hampers the introduction of circular economies for raw materials. Further there is no means of responding to how the material behaves in-process. The blend is prepared before being melted and processed in machines, and if there is a problem, it is simply unavoidable. Combined with the scrap problem and lack of closed-loop recyclability, the cost of PET, both economically and environmentally, is extremely high, at an estimated €325 wasted every hour in manufacturing and 72% of Europe's 780,000,000 tonne plastic consumption going to landfill or being released to soil and water.
Our objective with PETYield is to improve the processability and material properties of PET and recycled PET, with an adaptive system that modifies the properties of the melted material. This is done mid-process, using closed-loop monitoring of key process data such as viscosity and material temperature. From there our proprietary control systems add our proprietary process enhancers to ensure stable behaviour of the material. We aim to reduce scrap from 7% to 2%, effectively saving 70% of the cost to process one tonne of PET. Further, this process can modify recycled material properties, enabling its repeated reuse. This introduces true circular economies to PET supply and production, and reduces waste going to landfill or leaching to the earth.
