Assessment of the suitability of PET flakes produced by PETKA CZ, Inc. company for the manufacture of granulates for food purposes

This thesis deals with the recycling of polyethylene terephthalate and its subsequent processing into the form of a regranulate meeting the parameters required for food use. A brief description of recycling technology, PET flake quality rating and input material contamination is provided. Additionally, legislation regarding recycling for food purposes is discussed and regranulation technologies are described. The suitability of these technologies for processing specific flake samples has been confirmed. In the experimental part, differences in the regranulate samples are compared using DSC and FT-IR. It has been found that there are no major differences between food quality samples. Tests were carried out on 200 PET bottles (bottle, label), on which the input material was divided into 16 groups. Groups that are unsuitable for recycling with this technology was defined. In addition, contaminants of the final product were examined. Their approximate composition was determined and the relationship between the labels of the bottles at the inlet and the impurities at the outlet was found. Appropriate solutions have been proposed to reduce this contaminatio