Is PET Plastic Eco-Friendly?

PET is the most widely used thermoplastic polymer. PET plastic is durable, lightweight, and transparent, making it ideal for use in food containers, beverage bottles, furnishings, clothing, retail packaging, and various other applications.

With many businesses looking to increase their sustainability efforts, many manufacturers are prioritizing the use of eco-friendly materials. In this blog, we will go over the uses and benefits of PET as well as discuss why it’s an environmentally friendly choice for your packaging products.

What Is PET Plastic?

Polyethylene terephthalate, better known as PET, is a member of the polyester family with a clear appearance and a lightweight yet durable composition. PET was originally invented as a textile material; however, innovations allowed manufacturers to stretch PET into thin sheets or films to fold and use blow molding techniques to produce various products.

While PET used in fibers or textiles is typically called polyester, PET plastic is more commonly used to describe the plastic used in bottles and containers. It is the number one choice in packaging due to its lightweight, shatterproof durability, hygienic properties, and ability to seal in freshness. Since PET resists microbial growth and doesn’t react with food products, it is used in a wide range of products, including:

• Shampoo bottles
• Soda bottles
• Food packaging trays
• Cosmetic packaging

PET’s desirable properties also make it suitable for various industrial applications, including:

• Electrical. PET is an excellent electrical insulator, making it an ideal material for smart meters, junction boxes, and electrical enclosures.
• Automotive. Its lighter weight, thermal range, UV and abrasion resistance, low cost, and stiffness make PET suitable for seat covers, seatbelts, and automobile carpets.
• Textile. PET is a great insulation material in upholstery padding, comforters, and pillows. Its tear and stain resistance also make it a good choice for clothing.

Is PET Plastic Environmentally Friendly?

PET is the world’s most widely recycled plastic, with more than 2 billion pounds annually collected for recycling in North America. There is a prevalent understanding that PET plastic is recyclable due to the recycling symbol with a number one displayed on the packaging, and PET can be recycled many times.

Consumers see glass and aluminum as eco-friendly alternatives to plastic, but these materials produce higher carbon dioxide emissions and require increased energy consumption to manufacture and transport than PET. A product manufacturer switching from PET packaging to aluminum would produce two times the waste and carbon dioxide while using 50% more energy. Manufacturing PET requires less energy consumption than alternatives and can be recycled to reduce waste further. PET is also lightweight, reducing fuel consumption and emissions when transporting goods packaged in PET containers.

Why Choose PET Plastic?

PET plastic has several properties that make it the optimal choice for packaging products. These beneficial characteristics include:

• Food-safe
• Highly transparent
• Excellent strength-to-weight ratio
• Inexpensive and readily available
• Recyclable
• Shatterproof

PET Plastic From Printex Transparent Packaging

PET is a durable, lightweight, and highly-recyclable packaging solution for bottles and containers. It can reduce your carbon footprint and lower emissions and energy consumption during product manufacturing and transportation.

At Printex Transparent Packaging, we offer clear plastic boxes made from PET as an eco-friendly product packaging solution. We custom design and manufacture your plastic packaging and products, including gift and promo packs, displays and POP, SBS window boxes, and clear folding boxes for retailing your products. In addition to PET, our material options include SBS, PVC, HDPE, and post-consumer recycled PET.