Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Depolymerization (2025 Program)

This report discusses depolymerization as an advanced alternative to mechanical recycling for PET. Depolymerization technologies chemically break down PET into its monomers, enabling closed loop recycling and overcoming the quality limitations of mechanical methods. The report reviews key pathways such as glycolysis, methanolysis, and hydrolysis, outlining their process considerations, maturity, and feedstock applications. It highlights the cost-competitiveness and carbon intensity metrics these routes face, and presents global PET depolymerization capacity. Regional policy drivers are discussed to show how market pressures and infrastructure constraints shape the viability of depolymerization.