Thermal crystallization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for recycling and caring for the environment

Abstract

Mexico is one of the main consumers of PET worldwide. In Mexico, urban solid waste has not received adequate attention due to a series of factors of various kinds, among which are: Collection of mixed garbage (in 95% of the national territory) [I, II], public services insufficient and inefficient cleanliness, poor coordination between the different levels of government, incomplete legal framework and legislative work with a particular vision, passivity in ecological matters and little culture of recycling in society [III, IV, V]. Sustainable development, as it is currently disseminated, begins in 1983, when the United Nations (UN) created the Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was Prime Minister of Norway. The Brundtland Commission, carried out studies, analyses, and public consultations [VI], all over the world, for approximately three years, ending in April 1987, with the publication and dissemination of the report called Our Better Common Future known as The Brundtland Report [VII, VIII, IX]. The objective of this study was to determine the temperature at which polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in the form of granules, changes from amorphous to crystalline, since recrystallization improves the properties, which is necessary for the reuse of the material.