It is known that plastics usages can lead to major problem of waste disposals. Recycling material would offer an alternative means to save our environment. Poly (ethyleneteraphtalate), PET, is one of commercial polyester for textile and other applications. The applications of PET are found in different areas, such as synthetic textile fibers, films, and packagings. Among synthetic textile fibers, polyester ranked the first worldwide production, which PET fibers have the largest production capacity. Meanwhile PET bottles are one of the most commonly available water containers.
Typical recycling process involves grinding, melting and extrusion to pellets, then re-melting and re-shaping to desire products. These steps draw large amount of heat and force exert to polymer both macro and micro scales, which leads to lower its molecular weight, and alter mechanical properties accordingly. Since PET water bottle contains mainly poly (ethyleneterephthalate), thus it can be used as a model to study PET recycling process. In this study, two commercial brands of drinking water bottle disposal were gathered, washed, dried and ground into small flake. Then single screw extruder was used to melt the bottle flake and pelletize into recycled chips. The obtained recycled chips were melt spun into spunbond nonwoven sheet. Molecular weight of the recycled PET was examined by intrinsic viscometer, and degradation temperature was investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis instrument. Size and orientation of fiber in spunbond sheet were observed by using optical microscope. Comparison of these characteristics between recycled products and virgin product would lead to the useful information for selecting an appropriate processing condition.