Tertiary Recycling of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Aimed at Obtaining Chemicals and Fuels: A Review

Plastics have been an indispensable material in the life of humanity. However, these polymers have a slow degradation process that can lead to contamination of soil, air and water when they are not properly allocated. Since the poly (ethylene terephthalate) - PET is one of the most commonly consumed thermoplastic resins in Brazil and with a short time of use, it is normal to find it being discarded in landfills, streets, lakes and garbage dumps. Consequently, the recycling of plastic waste is an alternative for avoiding environmental and social problems. In this paper we describe the recycling methods for reuse of plastic waste, mainly the tertiary recycling of PET using the pyrolysis process. Tertiary recycling - pyrolysis - of PET is important because it reduces costs of pre-treatment, collection and selection, and allows the obtaining of both a combustible substance and chemicals used for the obtaining of the polymer which gave it origin or even a new polymer, thus eliminating the risk of using recycled PET for packaging foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals.