The barrier polyamide is cleared for bottle-to-fibre recycling applications.
Petcore, the European industry association promoting sustainable PET bottle use and recycling, has approved bottle blends containing Mitsubishi Gas Chemical’s MXD-6 high gas barrier polyamide resin for incorporation in bottle-to-fibre recycling.
The organisation has tested dark coloured mono-layer PET bottles produced from a blend of 9% MXD-6 and 91% PET in accordance with its Diolen bottle to fibre protocol, which dates to 2005.
It said it has established that R-PET containing up to 20% of the MXD-6/PET blend material is fully compliant with the fibre specification requirements.
Based on its results, the association has given its endorsement to the use of dark coloured MXD-6/PET blends in bottle-to-fibre recycling streams at levels of up to 10%. This limit has been selected to accommodate local accumulation in the recycling system.
Petcore says the endorsement should not be interpreted as meaning that MXD-6 blends are not acceptable in the bottle-to-bottle stream. However, its testing has been limited to coloured bottles, which are traditionally recycled to fibre applications even in non-barrier enhanced versions.
Last October, Petcore published its 2006 recycling data showing that 944,000 tonnes of post consumer PET was recycled in Europe, up by more than 18% on 2005 figures.
It claimed that more than 38% of the bottles used in Europe are collected for recycling, with the fibre industry the largest end-user sector.
Petcore says technological innovation in the PET bottle market must take into account the impact on R-PET recycling schemes. It said: “The introduction of different barrier systems is cumulative in the recycling stream potentially causing the resulting R-PET to be less acceptable in the market.”
l EPN’s fifth annual Barrier PET Bottles conference takes place in May and is the only event worldwide to focus exclusively on enhanced barrier PET bottle applications. For more information go to www.prwmold.wiki/events
Link to this article：Petcore approves MXD-6 resin for PET recycling
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