Abstract
PET beverage bottles have been recycled and safely reprocessed into new food contact packaging applications for over two decades. During recollection of post-consumer PET beverage bottles, PET containers from non-food products are inevitably co-collected and thereby enter the PET recycling feed stream. To explore the impact of this mixing on the safety-in-use of recycled PET (rPET) bottles, we determined the concentrations of post-consumer substances in PET containers used for a range of non-food product applications taken from the market. Based on the chemical nature and amounts of these post-consumer substances, we evaluated their potential carry-over into beverages filled in rPET bottles starting from different fractions of non-food PET in the recollection systems and taking worst-case cleaning efficiencies of super-clean recycling processes into account. On the basis of the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) concept and Cramer classification tools, we present a risk assessment for potential exposure of the consumer to the identified contaminants as well as unidentified, potentially genotoxic substances in beverages. As a result, a fraction of 5% non-food PET in the recycling feed stream, which is very likely to occur in the usual recollection systems, does not pose any risk to the consumer. Our data show that fractions of up to 20%, which may sporadically be contained in certain, local recollection systems, would also not raise a safety concern.
Highlights
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) bottles are widely used for beverages like soft drinks, mineral water, fruit juices, beers and others
Based on the chemical nature and amounts of these post-consumer substances, we evaluated their potential carry-over into beverages filled in recycled PET (rPET) bottles starting from different fractions of non-food PET in the recollection systems and taking worst-case cleaning efficiencies of super-clean recycling processes into account
Our data show that fractions of up to 20%, which may sporadically be contained in certain, local recollection systems, would not raise a safety concern
Summary
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) bottles are widely used for beverages like soft drinks, mineral water, fruit juices, beers and others. In 2017, for example, on average 58.2% of PET beverage bottles on the market in European countries were recollected and recycled [1]. PET beverage bottles have been recycled and safely reprocessed into new packaging applications for more than two decades [2]. Since numerous recycling processes employing different technologies have entered the market, producing super-clean and food-grade PET recyclates from used (post-consumer) food contact PET materials. In 2008, the European Commission published the Recycling Regulation No 282/2008, which regulates the use of post-consumer recyclates for direct food contact applications [3]. According to this regulation, recycling companies producing super-clean
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