White PET Causing Recycling Problems, Association Says

Danielle Jackson

Arlington, Va. -- The Association for Post-Consumer Plastic Recyclers has reported that its members, which include more than 90 percent of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle processing capacity in North America, have found white PET to be detrimental to bottle recycling.

New sorting technologies help identify and separate white PET, which is a contaminant for natural PET in many applications, from other PET colors, the association says. But current sorting technology is not able to separate it.