Turning wastes into money

Wastes of plastic bottles, the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, are now one in the list of the export commodities for Bangladesh. The plastic bottles are mainly containers for beverages.

The collected bottles are recycled into PET flakes which are then exported. The importers like China and Vietnams, among others, make polyester stable fibres (PSF) from these flakes which are used in clothings.

As the Reuters report says, the business was about $10 M for Bangladesh in 2007 and now growing at a rate of 20% yearly.