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DID YOU KNOW?

Little-Known Facts about PET Plastic

• PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is actually polyester. When PET is used for bottles, containers and other applications, it's called PET or PET resin. When PET is used as a fiber, it's typically called polyester.
  
  
• The PET bottle was invented by Nathaniel C. Wyeth, a DuPont engineer and brother of American painter Andrew Wyeth. The patent was issued to Wyeth in 1973 and assigned to DuPont.
  
  
• According to the EPA, recycling one pound of PET bottles (that's about 12 one-liter soda bottles) would save approximately 12,000 BTUs of energy.
  
  
• PET bottles and the sun are helping more people in developing countries obtain potable water. Using a system called SODIS (solar water disinfection), inhabitants set water-filled PET bottles in the sun for several hours or days - depending on how much sunlight is available - as a simple but effective means of destroying disease-causing bacteria and gaining safe drinking water.
  
  
• More than 1 billion pounds of used PET bottles and containers are collected in the U.S. each year for recycling. PET is the most recycled plastic in America.
  
  
• An empty 2-liter PET soda bottle weighs about the same as 10 sheets of copy paper, but is strong enough to easily hold nearly 4½ pounds worth of soft drink.
  
  
• Chemists keep finding new ways to make PET lighter without losing any strength. A 2-liter PET bottle that weighed 68 grams in 1980 now weighs 47 grams.
  
  
• Woven, knitted and braided PET fibers are sometimes used by surgeons for implantable sutures, cardiovascular patches and wound repair meshes because of PET's bio-stability and durability.
  
  
• According to the National Association for PET Container Resources, the average American household generated 42 pounds of PET plastic bottles in 2005. That could yield enough recycled fiber to make 20 extra-large T shirts, 12 square feet of carpet and 3 sweaters!

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