Polyethylene terephthalate

Polyethylene terephthalate (aka PET, PETE, PETP) is a plastic resin used to make beverage, food and other liquid containers, as well as for some other thermoforming applications.

Its main virtue is that it is fully recyclable as you can recover its polymer chains, unlike most other plastics.

It exists both in as an amorphous (transparent) and as a semi-crystalline (opaque and white) material.

PET was patented in 1941 by the Calico Printer's Association of Manchester.

The PET bottle was patented in 1973.