Most disposable water and beverages bottles are made up of plastic, known as PET. On these bottles, usually arrow symbol around the number q would be printed. Most people reuse disposable PET bottles. However, it can cause a potential health risk when improper cleaning and handling of bottles occur. Therefore, consumers need to have proper knowledge when they use PET plastic bottles.PET bottle Manufacturers also have to remember basic reusing plastic points to ensure that it does not cause any environmental hazard.  We also have to face major challenges in recycling plastic bottles, such as finding values, correct sorting method, designs for recycling, etc.

Thing to be considered when reusing PET bottles



·         Contamination of water with bacteria and fungi results when refilling of water bottles occur. Bacteria can grow in damp or full bottles once you have opened them.

·         Bacterial organism comes from the air, dirty hands and mouth, or anything in contact with bottle mouth. Bacteria can multiply to a harmful level within time and warm conditions. Therefore, safe handling and proper cleaning can help to prevent this condition.

·         How much chemical migrates from plastic will depend on the substance's nature when it comes into contact, contact temperature, and time. However, proper usage of plastics will not cause chemical migration that does not pose any health risk to consumers.

·         PET bottles Manufacturermake it ensure that plastic bottles are safe in use for their immediate intended purposes. For example, water bottles should be suitable for containing water. It will not transfer the chemicals into the water.

·        Migration increases with time of contact and temperatures within all plastic types. When the migration of chemicals increases from plastic bottles does not pose a health risk, it could change the organoleptic properties such as taste, colour, and the odor of water they contain. Therefore, it is better to not expose PET bottled water to the sunlight.

·         Bottle distortion during hot filling, PET bottles that are disposable are not suitable for hot beverages. When contact temperature reaches 70 Celsius, then the bottles may physically deform.

Unfounded health concerns regarding PET bottles

After the PET bottle manufacturing and when it comes to usage, it will leach out DEHP or DEHA, which are cancer-causing substances. In addition, common plasticizers such as DEHA can leach from PET bottles into the liquid, particularly with reuse. Plasticizers are additives that increase the elasticity and flexibility of plastics. However, for PET production, DEHP and DEHA are not needed. Therefore, this allegation is unfounded.

PET plastic bottles will release dioxins during freezing

Persistent environmental pollutants contain dioxins that result from industrial processes and combustion activities. These are toxic and can even cause cancer. There are no scientific reasons for expecting dioxins to be firstly present in PET bottles. In freezing temperatures, dioxins cannot be formed. Only one person should use bottles. Do not share your bottle with anyone. Saliva can transfer germs that increase the chances of illnesses.

Reuse Plastic Bottles At Home

1.      Egg Yolk Sucker:This hack is a game-changer. Keep a clean plastic bottle to hand in the kitchen for recipes. You can make an egg yolk sucker by reusing a plastic bottle.

2.      Pencil Case:For your home kids, you can reuse the plastic bottle to make a pencil case.

3.      Jewellery stand: It is one of the best homemade gifts for your friends. You can make a jewellery stand by using plastic bottles.

4.      Hanging bottle garden:To makes a fantastic feature in the garden, you have to do a lot of work. It looks complex, but a very simple procedure is required for it. First, you have to string the bottles together at the top and bottom, hanging on the wall and cutting a section of the bottle to plant your herbs, flowers, or other plants.

Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Plastic Recycling

For the plastic recycling sector, the major challenge is the effective recycling of plastics waste. The advantage is the ability to recycle plastic waste of a large proportion by expanding post-consumer plastic packaging collection to cover a large variety of materials and packing types. For recycling, product design has strong potential to assist in such kind of recycling efforts. To promote the use of environmental design principles policies implemented by industry. These could greatly impact recycling performance, increasing the packaging proportion that can be economically collected and diverted from landfills.

The same logic applies to durable consumer goods designing for recycling and disassembly. To increase recycling, specifications for use recycled resins are the key actions. For rigid packaging, most post-consumer collection schemes as flexible tend to be more problematic during the collection and sorting stages. Currently, material recovery facilities have difficulty handling flexible plastic packaging. The reason is the different handling characteristics of rigid packaging.  The films of low weight-to-volume ratio and plastic bags also make it less economically sustainable to invest in the collection that is necessary and sorting facilities. However, plastic films are currently recycled from secondary packaging such as shrink-wrap of pallets and boxes. Following approaches to increase the films recycling and flexible packaging:

·         Separate collection

·        Investment in extra sorting and processing facilities for handling mixed waste of plastic at recovery facilities. 

For the effective recycling process of mixed plastics, high-performance sorting of the input materials needs to be performed. In addition, it is important to ensure that plastic types are separated to high purity levels. However, a need for further end markets development for each recyclate stream.  If the diversity of the material were to be rationalized to a subset of current usage. Then the post-consumer packaging recycling effectiveness could be increased dramatically.

Innovations in plastics

Most of the plastics were not designed as they can be recycled. Scientists of Berkeley National Laboratory recently created a new plastic-type. That material is known as poly (diketoenamine) PDK. It can be broken apart at the molecular level. Then you can give life in any new form like different texture, colour, and shape without compromising its performance or initial quality. This kind of material will be easier to sort at recycling centers. You can also make recycled materials made from it that are more durable and of better quality.

Conclusion

Consumers mustn't misuse any PET bottle. The result can be in a great amount of chemical migration that would otherwise be expected. To maximize recycling performance, labels and adhesive materials should be selected.Manufacture of PET bottles must know how to improve the sorting process within recycling plants. It is important to provide further potential for higher recycling volumes and better eco-efficiency by decreasing waste fraction, energy, and water use. The goal should be to maximize both the quality and volume of recycled resins. The bestplastic manufacturers in Lahore who especially offer PET plastic products are the Plastix Company.