Disposal of plastic waste has become a widely discussed issue, due to the potential environmental impact of improper waste disposal. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging accounted for 44.7% of single-serve beverage packaging in the US in 2021, and 12% of global solid waste. A strategic solution is needed to manage plastic packaging solid waste. Major beverage manufacturers have pledged to reduce their environmental footprint by taking steps towards a sustainable future. The PET bottle has several properties that make it an environmentally friendly choice. The PET bottle has good barrier properties as its single-layer, mono-material composition allows it to be more easily recycled. Compared to glass, the PET bottle is lightweight and has a lower carbon footprint in production and transportation. With modern advancements to decontamination processes in the recycling of post-consumer recycled PET (rPET or PCR), it has become a safe material for reuse as beverage packaging. It has been 30 years since the FDA first began certifying PCR PET production processes as compliant for production of food contact PCR PET, for application within the United States. This article provides an overview of PET bottle-to-bottle recycling and guidance for beverage manufacturers looking to advance goals for sustainability.

No abstract

No abstract

Hexamethyldisiloxane is used as a silicon-source gas for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) growth of silicon oxide films for passivation layers in microelectronics. In order to produce low permeability films, it is necessary to minimize the carbon content. Films were deposited by a room temperature PECVD process in a parallel plate reactor, and were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, ellipsometry, microbalance, and elastic recoil detection (ERD). The infrared-active carbon groups appear in Si–CH3, CHx, C=O, and SiC bands. A double band at 2343 cm−1 has also been seen to track these bands. Deposition rate data shows linear behavior as a function of the Hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) concentration in the reactor. The carbon within the films ranges from 36% to <1% of the amount of carbon assisted with HMDSO required to grow the films, depending upon the oxygen flow rate. By comparing the ERD composition data to the infrared spectral data, a carbon content correlation value has been found, and a detailed study of the data reveals evidence of C–C bond existence within films having the greatest total carbon content. Finally, it appears that the 2343 cm−1 band corresponds to CO2 rotational bands, in which the distribution of rotational states is evidence of hindered molecular motion.