Do you often see annotations such as “ PET ” or “ rPET ” on the packaging of your products but you don't understand a thing? Don't panic, we'll explain everything to you!
What is PET?
PET stands for Polyethylene Terephthalate, it is the most common form of plastic in the polyester family.
PET is used in the textile industry to manufacture fibers for clothing and in the food and cosmetics industry for bottling (bottles of water, oil, bottles of gel, shampoo, etc.) . It is obtained by the polycondensation of two monomers: terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Are you still? These two molecules result from the transformation of oil, it takes about 1.9 kg of crude oil to obtain 1 kg of PET.
But what are its advantages?
If it is used so much it is because it meets the strictest regulatory requirements in terms of hygiene, but not only! It is also for its unbreakable, transparent properties and because it is… 100% recyclable!
At Merci Handy we are not perfect, but we try to get close!
This is why, since 2022, we have decided that all new bottles of our gels will be produced exclusively in rPET. That little “r” stands for “recycled”. But how does it work ? It all starts with the circular economy of recycling PET plastics: used PET packaging is collected, compacted, crushed and reduced to flakes (except this time, it's not those of your unicorn gel but mini pieces of plastic). These flakes are then purified and melted in the form of granules which can be reused to form new packaging. The circle is complete !
This form of recycling saves no less than 60% of energy and 1 ton of recycled PET saves up to 1.2 tons of oil! rPET therefore has a much lower carbon footprint than ordinary PET (new material), i.e. 0.45 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg compared to 2.15 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg.
It then makes it possible to limit greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to energy savings and that we at Merci Handy love it!
Now that you're unbeatable on rPET, you'll finally be able to shine in your physics / chemistry class or during your next date 😏
