Polyethylene terephthalate commonly known as PET or PETE is one the most commonly used thermoplastic polymer raisin used to manufacture soda bottles, shampoo containers, clothing and an assortment of other products. This article will shed light on the massive PET collection, segregation, pre-processing & aggregation market in India which is mostly dominated by the unorganised sector. The following topics will be discussed in this article: 1. Generation of PET waste 2. Collection of PET waste 3. Segregation & Value addition PET waste 4. Aggregation I am not going to go into numbers, but rather discuss where PET waste is mostly generated from in this article. The reason behind not going into numbers as of now is due to lack of credible data available & because the second part of this article series will be focused on PET waste volumes, for which I am in the process of researching & verifying data. Generation of PET waste: PET is generated from households, industries, commercial establishments such as malls, hotels, restaurants, offices, roads, drains & dumpsites. From households: Soda pop bottles, cooking oil bottles, shampoo containers, take away food packaging (PET Thermoforms) . From industries: Damaged PET Jars (20 litres) & some containers of liquid soaps. Some Industries such as those involved in the bottling & distributing refreshments such as Coke & Pepsi generate vast amounts of PET waste in form of expired or returned products.Above: PET Collection From A Warehouse From Malls: Mostly mineral water bottles & containers of cleaning agents. From Hotels: From hotels there is massive generation of PET mineral bottles, along with miniature containers of PET used to package shampoos, conditioners and body creams. From restaurants: Mostly bottles of mineral water & soda pop, with some bottles of oil From Offices: Mostly 20 litre damaged jars, take away food containers, containers of cleaning supplies. From, Roads, Drains & Dumpsites: Mostly PET mineral water bottles & soda pop which are thrown from moving cars, or not recovered from mixed waste by the unorganised sector due to various reasons. Collection of PET: PET has street value! Which means if you can collect it and sell it you will be compensated for your efforts in cash. Of course collection methods vary from collecting PET on foot from streets & dumpsites, to using manual rickshaws & trucks for collection from homes, industrial and commercial establishments. Collection From homes: Collection of waste from homes is mostly done by the un organised sector & that too in mixed form, as most households do not segregate their waste. In majority of the cases collection from homes is done using a manual rickshaw. The collector then proceeds to segregate the waste into different categories at the local community dump site or at his or his contractor’s warehouse. PET at this stage is recovered but not sorted, which means coloured and clear material are mixed and kept aside. In many cases liquid is still present in the bottles, with their caps and labels intact. Collection from homes is done mostly by small contractor’s (In some case these contractors are large) who are part of the unorganised sector. Some of them are independent entrepreneurs, others work for contractors who employ numerous such individuals to collect waste from homes & the road side. If the collector is an independent contractor, he or she will recover the PET and upsell it to a larger contractors who deal in PET. If the waste collector is working for a contractor than he or she will segregate and sell the PET waste to the contractor at a fixed rate. This rate includes the cost of collection and most of these individuals don’t get a fixed pay, but rather earn their money from selling the recyclables in the waste. Collection From Industries: Collection of scrap from industries is mostly done through a tendering process where the collection agency or individual pay a fixed rate for the items that he or she is collecting. Certain industries ask for a mixed rate, as in different recyclables are mixed together (cardboard, PET, metals, paper) others ask for item wise rates. It depends on how well planned their waste disposal system is. From industries such as third party bottling plants & warehouses that service large FMGS companies such as COKE and PEPSI, PET is collect in bulk. The challenge here again is that most of these warehouses & industries do not have bailing equipment on site, so the material has to be filled in large sacks and then loaded onto trucks manually. Furthers in many of these facilities, most of the PET still has content in it which first has to be emptied out. The maximum PET that one can collect in a 22 foot truck is about 2000 kilograms. That too is achieved only if you have team that is well trained in filling sacks and then loading them onto the truck in a manner that saves space so that the maximum amount of sacks can be loaded. A sack on average would weigh about 65-75 kilograms. No alt text provided for this image Truck Loaded With PET Bottles No alt text provided for this image Above: PET Collecting From Industries No alt text provided for this image Above PET Collection From The Unorganised Sector Collection from Malls & Hotels: Have clubbed this because the process is almost identical. In both cases the contract for collection of waste is tendered out. Malls & hotels charge a lump sum from the waste collector and the waste is given to them at a designated area in mixed from. In hotels, the organic waste is dumped in a cold storage room & this waste is also sold to individuals who purchase it from hotels to be used as cattle feed. The rest of the recyclables are dumped together in one area from where the waste collector first segregates it into different categories and then loads it onto his truck. Collection from Restaurants: Collection from restaurants is done mostly by the unorganised sector. Not surprisingly, most of the waste is sold & there is little segregation. A similar pattern is implemented at standalone restaurants as mentioned in collection of waste from households. In some cases certain restaurants do pay a nominal fee, but for the most part the recyclables are all sold, immaterial of the quantity or quality. Collection from offices: Large commercial office complexes deploy professional housekeeping organisations. These organisations are responsible for various tasks, including disposal of waste. Large multinational organisations are present in this field, but unfortunately transparency in waste disposal is missing. Collection from these larges office spaces is done by private contractors who may or may not charge money for the services offered, depending on the quantity and quality of recyclables in the waste. Collection from roads, drains & dumpsites: Collection from roads is done early mornings by private contractors in their rickshaws or by individuals on foot. They are out for about four to five hours scavenging for recyclables along the side of roads, empty plots, drains etc. They mostly work for a contractor who again pays them based on a fixed per kilogram rate of material that they have collected. Then there are landfill or dumpsite contractors. They control the rights to waste being dumped in landfills and open dumps across the country. This is a unholy nexus between certain individuals in the government and local garbage mafia goons who exploit kids, women and others, having them sift through waste that is dumped in landfills. Waste which has not been segregated and recyclables not recovered due to numerous reason, recyclables that are removed during the process of drain cleaning, which are mixed in silt and thrown in landfills, mixed garbage collected by municipalities or private contractors appointed by municipalities dumped in landfills are some of the ways that this waste makes it way to these open dumps, we refer to as landfills. One thing to keep in mid here is that the quality of the waste collected from the side of the road, drains & landfills is poor not only because its dirty, but also because of the kind of PET that is collected. Small PET bottles of cheap country liquor (quarters) addhas, paua, which are made of mostly recycled PET are of a higher percentage in this collection stream. These bottles have a paper label & aluminium ring around the neck, making the task of recycling them much more tedious than that for normal PET. Segregation & Value Addition: PET is segregated into five or six categories depending on the amount of value addition you want to do. These categories are: 1. Clear 2. Coloured 3. Jars 4. Country Made Liquor Containers 5. With labels 6. Without labels In some cases aggregators simply just segregate PET according to colour & in some cases they don’t even do that, they simply bale it and send it further for processing. But many in the sector also increase the value of the product by undertaking the following activities: No alt text provided for this image 1. Colour sorting & removing the labels & Caps : This increases the value of the material by Rupees 3 – 4. Labels are mostly removed by hand and in some cases where the quantity at hand is large, a label remover is used. Labels on bottles are either, BOPP, PVC or Paper. Post the removal of labels (90%) if there are some labels that are left, they are removed manually by hand. The caps are removed from the bottles and bottles are then fed into a bailer according to colour for the purpose of transporting them to the processing facility. The caps removed are made of PP and are of different colours. Some colour sort this manually, but most sell these caps in mixed form. No alt text provided for this image Above: Labels Removed From PET Bottles 2. Cutting the Neck: Even though bottle to bottle recycling is not legally allowed here in India, it does take place in the unorganised sector where the neck portion of the bottle which has a higher IV is used for manufacturing mostly country made liquor bottles. Cutting the neck is only viable for clear PET. One can fetch 40-50% above the price of PET (Body) for the neck portion of the bottle. The neck is separated from the body using a mechanical cutter. No alt text provided for this image Above: The Neck of PET Bottles 3. Shredding: You may shred the clear PET with or with labels. The one thing that you must be careful about is not shredding PET bottles with a PVC or paper label. Highly discourage shredding PET with labels on them. No alt text provided for this image Above: Shredded PET Flakes 4. Country made liquor: Removing the aluminium rings is a must, as this not only increases the price but also opens up the market to a larger number of buyers for your product. 5. Jars: We simply just bale the jars and send them to the processing unit after colour sorting them and removing there caps. No alt text provided for this image Above: Jars Bailed & Redy To Be Sent For Processing No alt text provided for this image Above: Bailed PET Loaded & On Its Way To a Processing Facility How much value you want to add is all dependant on the volumes that you are dealing with and the price at which you have bought the product. In some cases it may make sense to add some value & in others simply bailing it and sending it further for processing makes the most sense. The PET market is a competitive market with a lot of processing happening in the unorganised sector. Collection to a great extent remains in the hands of the unorganised sector. Note: There are some new methods coming on line for collection of PET, such as Reverse Vending Machines with limited success. There is a dire need for policy reform in this sector and it’s about times that the government allow the use of R-pet in food grade containers along with pushing brands to fund and set up DRS across the country taking both financial and operation lability of the process. I hope that this article has added value to you the reader. The next article in this series will discuss PET waste generation & collection volumes through information found in corporate reports, online in the public domain and assumptions based on research, personal data and experience. Have a fantastically sustainable week!