How many PET Bottles are recycled in one bag?

DICOTA uses a variety of different materials for different types of products. As a leading brand for premium bag solutions, we are committed to finding innovative and sustainable alternatives to conserve resources. Like with the former ECO series, the main material used for both, the new SCALE as well as the SELECT collection, is made of 100% recycled PET which reduces burdens on the environment without compromising on quality, look and feel. Those two families combined account for 22% of all notebook bags, backpacks and trolleys offered by DICOTA. Looking at the collections for the CORPORATE segment (SELECT, SCALE, PRO & ECO), recycled material is used as the basis for 67% of all items and each product gives a new live to 6-16 PET bottles. In the future we target replacing the main material for all our textile products by recycled materials.

How does the life cycle of plastics work in general?

The service life of plastics goes from less than 1 to 50 years or more and varies significantly among different product types and regions across the globe. It is estimated that in 2015, only about 20% of global plastic waste was recycled while 25% was incinerated and 55% was discarded in landfills. Looking more closely at PET bottles and containers, the recycling rate across Europe rose to 60% in 2016.

The end product of the recycling process depends on the purity of the collected material and the technology used for processing. Prue virgin polyester is 100% recyclable without losing its strength and quality. Hence strictly sorted PET material can be recycled in a closed loop and used again for its initial purpose (e.g. drinking bottle or food container). This is the case, for example, for the PET collection done in Switzerland. However, in worldwide practice most plastics are only suitable for recycling once or twice. Particularly when the collected material contains different plastic blends it is rather reused for other purposes and one of them is to produce fabrics. Based on an analysis of the industry trends of rPET  44% of worldwide recycled PET is being further processed into textile fibres while only about 20% is used to create food and beverage containers.