PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2016

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 13 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 11/16 www.petpla.net found to be due to the lesser thick- ness in that area, compared to the other variables. However, the results were still well within performance requirements. The only significant deviations from virgin PET performance were in their appearances. Yellowing (b*) and haze both increase as the recycled content rose. Bottles made from rPET A yellowed more than rPET B, at all levels and as the rPET level increased (fig. 2). However, bottles made from rPET B had, on average, higher haze levels than rPET A, as the percent- ages increased – although rPET A showed higher levels of haze at 100% concentration (fig. 3). The yellowing and haze are both aesthetic factors; they do not affect physical perfor- mance in practice. Conclusions  All of the samples passed the standard performance specifica- tions for hot fill bottles, even at high percentages of rPET.  Measured shrinkage increased slightly at recycled content levels above 50%, but the bottles remained within the specification.  Top load performance for one of the rPET variables slightly improved as the recycled content increased. However, the analysis led to the conclusion that the per- formance increase can be corre- lated to wall thickness differences, more than the rPET content.  The only significant drawbacks of high rPET content are increased yellowing and higher haze levels. However, these are aesthetic issues and do not impact performance. www.plastictechnologies.com Figure 1: Hot-fill performance with rPET content Figure 3: % RPET vs. haze Figure 2: % RPET vs. yellowing (b*) MHT MOLD & HOTRUNNER TECHNOLOGY AG Your Machine - Our Solution 1996-2016 20 YEARS Mumbai, Dec 15-17 Booth 1-F38