20 Million PET Bottles to be Recycled Annually By Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

According to a statement made by its chairman, the nation's largest oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL), will recycle 20 million discarded PET Bottles for mineral water, cold drinks, and other uses each year to create eco-friendly uniforms for employees who work at its petrol pumps and LPG distributor agencies.

IOC Chairman SM Vaidya unveiled a special "sustainable and green" uniform for the company's nearly 3 lakh fuel station attendants and LPG gas delivery personnel in a glittering ceremony titled "Unbottled - Towards a Greener Future."

He also said that IOCL, which supplies as much as half of the country's fuel needs, has already said it will have net zero emissions by 2046 and is now trying to recycle PET Bottles.

PET waste is PET packaging that has been used but discarded by the consumer. The IOCL will set up a team to take 20 million of these bottles each year and turn them into yarn that can be used to weave or knit fabric. After that, this will be provided to a textile company to produce uniforms for the LPG gas agency employees and IOCL's petrol pump attendants.

IOCL is the first Indian company to engage in PET bottle recycling directly.

These uniforms' dress materials are made from recycled polyester that is made by processing PET Bottles that have been used and thrown away. This initiative would encourage the recycling of approximately 405 tonnes of PET Bottles, or more than 20 million bottles annually.

Vaidya stated that each year, approximately 150 million metric tonnes of plastic circulate in our marine ecosystems, and 8 million metric tonnes of plastic enter the ocean. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish at this rate. He noted that the transformation of plastic bottles into fabric is a beautiful illustration of how diligent problem-solving opens doors to new opportunities.

Used plastic bottles are shredded into flakes and melted into micro-pellets as part of the IOCL's green initiative. These tiny pellets are made into yarns that are used to weave these green clothes.\This fabric's impact on the environment extends beyond its recycling benefits. The clothes have the same quality as virgin polyester, but they are made with significantly fewer resources.

When compared to virgin polyester, its production uses almost 60% less energy and produces nearly a third less CO2 emission. The used Polycotton uniforms can still be mechanically recycled into low-cost quilts, blankets, or even high-end denim fabric when they become worn out. The fabric is certified in accordance with the Global Recycling Standard.

The market of recycled PET in India is underperforming at present. As per the analysis by ChemAnalyst, recycled PET (R-PET Resin) was being traded at around INR 120 per Kg on (spot) ex-Baddi basis in October 2022, and it has predicted the price to go down by almost 6% till the end of this year. As the firm expects an increase in demand from businesses downstream, growth in crude oil prices, and enhanced production activity in upstream companies, it has predicted the price of R-PET to grow by 3.3% in January 2023.