RPET fabric advantages and profile

RPET

RPET is the short name for recycled polyethylene tetraphyte, which is a new reusable and sustainable material that is on the rise.

Beforehand, we’ll explain a bit more about PET first ,which used in everything from packaging to clothing. PET comes from crude oil. The process of extracting crude oil from the ground is very damaging for the environment. The actual scientific process involves taking an alcohol called ethylene glycol and mixing it with terephthalic acid to produce molten PET. When this occurs, both products bond together in a process called esterification, creating a new long-chain polymer that we call PET.

The great thing about PET is it can be easily molded to a desired shape when heated but when it cools down again it retains its strength. PET is lightweight, non-toxic , highly durable, versatile and cheap compared to other options. Also, unlike many other plastics, PET can be recycled and used again. It is easy to see why it is the food and drink industry’s packaging of choice.

However the durability of PET creates one of its’ biggest problems. Being such a durable compound means it takes 700 years for PET to break down into the soil, should it end up in landfill. Plastics in landfills can leach toxic chemicals into the Earth. These chemicals can make their way into groundwater reserves, endangering both humans and animals. Plastics that “break down”, only do so into smaller pieces of plastic, which are still harmful to the ecosystems they may end up in.

That’s where RPET comes in.

The word ‘RPET’ it simply means that the PET in the product you’re looking at, should come from a recycled, pre-existing source, which not only provides a better option than the landfill, it also has the ability to greatly decrease our resource extraction. By using existing bottles already created, it ensures these bottle don’t end up in landfill. It also means we can leave the planet as it is: rather than obtaining the core ingredient via the highly damaging process of crude oil primary extraction, we instead make use of a product in abundance that may otherwise have directly contributed to landfill.

Energy is a big part of this equation, too! Creating a plastic water bottle from 100% recycled content uses 75% less energy than its virgin counterpart. Although some energy and water is still needed to process these plastics into new forms (which is why we love reusable!), the amount is significantly less than creating first-time plastics. This translates to less resource extraction, which protects the natural landscapes where oil and natural gas are extracted. This also means that there is less carbon emitted  during the creation of new products.

Let’s pay our contribution on reducing ,reusing, recycling of the PET.