Polyester recycling has literally exploded following former Vice President Al Gore's ground-breaking environmental campaign based on his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2006, said Yin Cheng-ta, deputy director of the department of product development at the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI).
In 2004, 665,000 tons of PET were collected and recycled in Europe, representing a collection rate of over 30 percent -- the same rate also applied in Taiwan at that time. The volume of collected PET is expected to exceed one million tons by 2010, in Europe. The lightweight plastic bottles have become valuable feedstock for a wide range of products. End markets for recycled PET include polyester fiber, sheet, strapping, and new PET bottles.
Although Taiwan already had 15 years' experience in the field, Gore's international campaign immediately created a "quantum jump" on the recycling market in Taiwan, Yin went on, as the three leading companies in the sports industry -- Nike, Adidas and Reebok -- placed huge orders of polyester fabric on the local market.
"On the short term, however, the demand for recycled polyester could not match the offer and, companies turned to the Chinese market for raw materials," he added. However, quality-related problems immediately occurred.
According to Yin, the most important steps during the recycling process are the collecting and sorting of bottles, and their cleaning. In Taiwan, Tzu Chi Foundation had been the only organization carrying out the proper recycling process, he said.
Tzu Chi is a charitable Buddhist organization with hundred of thousands of members. Once a month, Tzu Chi volunteers would gather at each of the foundation's recycling centers and proceed to separate polyester bottles based on color and other characteristics.
"If you don't sort out plastic bottles properly, the final polyester fibers and fabrics will have irregular properties," said Yin. For instance, recycling organizations established in cities and counties around Taiwan usually crush and press bottles altogether whatever their color, which makes the resulting polyester only useful for plastic furniture, he added.
"Yet, it is not the only problem with PET recycling," said Jamie Lin, Chief of the Technical Textile Section at the TTRI. "It is also impossible to distinguish between new and recycled polyester."
Given that recycled polyester is more expensive, some suppliers have been caught cheating companies asking for recycled polyester with new polyester instead, he added. Sportswear companies have thus asked the textile industry to guarantee the origin of the raw materials used in their fabrics, he went on, which so far only Tzu Chi Foundation can do at an affordable price.
