PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2013

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 34 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 10/13 www.petpla.net Recycling Switzerland with Carbotech and relating to the ”ecological benefits and optimisation potential of PET recycling” states:  thanks to the Swiss recycling system, more than 3kg of green- house gases such as CO 2 are saved per kilogram PET recycled. PET is 100% recyclable.  Every year the emissions of 140,000t of greenhouse gases (mainly CO 2 ) can be prevented. This corresponds to the emissions of all cars in the canton of Schaf- fhausen.  with new products to be manu- factured from the PET recycled in Switzerland, approx. 50% of the energy amounting to 36 million tons of natural gas has been be saved each year (annual heating for all households in Canton Appenzell) Litter Even in Switzerland, a country where there is major emphasis on cleanliness, it is important to keep on reminding people that they need to get involved. PRS, together with the Igora Association (for the collec- tion and recycling of aluminium), is conducting major campaigns against littering. Both collection organisations have combined their activities in “IG Saubere Umwelt” (IGSU = Interest group for clean environment), to which other organisations have also signed up, such as VetroSwiss, Tetra Pak, McDonald’s, Migros, Coop, the free newspapers “20 Minuten” and “Blick am Abend”, the Association of Swiss Media, Swiss Cigarette and the Inter- national Chewing Gum Association. Numerous volunteers, mainly young people and students, address “litter- ers” directly on the streets. A further Swiss invention which deserves a mention is the pay-as-you- throw sack (€2.00 per sack) into which households can put their left-over waste. The assumption behind this is that the thrifty Swiss, in order to save money, will participate in cost-free recycling and separate out their PET - as well as aluminium, glass, paper and compost. The pay-as-you-throw sack is a statutory requirement in all cantons, but only implemented yet in 80% of all municipalities. Usage of RPET Basically, the aim is to use the recyclate for manufacturing new bot- tles and in this way to complete the bottle-to-bottle cycle. Messrs. ITW Poly Recycling GmbH as well as RecyPET AG have been commis- sioned to salvage the sorted bottles and to produce a recyclate suitable for direct food contact which can be re-used in the production of bever- age bottles. Both companies operate in close collaboration with the PRS which makes the arrangements for the used bottles to be collected and sorted by colour and quality, pressed into bales and delivered. Both com- panies process all collected qualities.