PET has an important economic advantage: it can be “upcycled”. What comes out of the recycling process can be a better quality PET than what went in. In order for R-PET to meet the high quality standards required by applications such as beverage bottles or strapping bands, it undergoes solid state polycondensation. This process not only increases the intrinsic viscosity (IV), it also decontaminates the material so effectively that it is suitable for direct food contact applications.