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 bottles 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 2005. PET is also used for film, oven trays, sheeting for cups and food trays, and other packaging. 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, are becoming an important market for recycled PET. The rise in custom bottles and the increased consumption of water and soft drinks away from home has 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, D.C. E-mail the author at: cmiller@envasns.org.