Recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles in the Logistics Supply Chain – Overview

Abstract

A great deal of packaging made of PET is observed in logistics supply chains, and the article is mainly concerned with food – bottles. Implementing the EU’s “zero-waste” guidelines implies action on the part of producers of packaging and food for B2C distribution to find new solutions to enable the above-mentioned stakeholders in the logistics supply chain to balance the business mentioned above parties – taking into account environmental protection. The article discusses the tasks and possibilities under the above conditions of a new type of “RECYCLER” companies, which, at the end of the life of PET packaging, i.e. after the foodstuffs in PET bottles have been consumed, produce a recyclate and return it to re-production. In several journals, including, e.g. (Połednik et al. 2016, Topiarzová et al. 2011), respecting good recycling practices – there is an ongoing discussion on the sense of introducing reusable packaging, deposits, etc. This article discusses the barriers to recovery in a multi-level plastics recovery system, with specific reference to the operation of a PET bottle recycling line, and presents a pre-verified concept for a method to increase the efficiency of separating PET bottles from the plastics fraction in a multi-level waste separation system.