Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a plastic resin used to make bottles for soft drinks and other household and consumer products. PET is a relatively new packaging resin. The PET bottle was patented in 1973. Four years later, the first PET bottle was recycled.

Soft drink bottlers remain the biggest user of PET resin. "Custom" bottles are used for other products, such as salad dressing, peanut butter and jellies. Custom bottles accounted for more than half of PET containers by weight in 2007. PET is also used for film, oven trays, sheeting for cups and food trays, oven trays, and other uses. This profile is limited to PET containers.

Half of all polyester carpet made in the United States is made from recycled PET bottles. Exports, however, became the largest market for PET recyclers in 2007. The rise in use of custom bottles and the increased consumption of water and soft drinks away from home have created challenges for increasing the PET recycling rate.

PET use has reduced the size of the waste stream because PET has replaced heavier steel and glass containers.

Chaz Miller is state programs director for the National Solid Wastes Management Association, Washington. E-mail him at: cmiller@envasns.org.

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