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What Are PCR Granules?

PCR Granules are small, raw plastic pellets made from recycled post-consumer waste—items like used bottles, packaging, and containers that have been disposed of by households or businesses. 

🧪 What They Are Made From: Waste from consumers (e.g., used bottles, detergent containers). This is distinct from PIR (Post-Industrial Recycled) material, which comes from factory scrap that never reached consumers.

♻️ Production Process: Collected plastic waste is sorted, cleaned, melted, and reformed into uniform pellets (granules).

🎨 Available Types: PCR granules are produced from many common plastics

✅ Key Advantages and Challenges

Advantages:

Environmental Impact: Reduces fossil resource use, landfill waste, and can lower CO₂ emissions by up to 85% compared to new plastic.

Economic & Regulatory: Often more cost-effective than virgin plastic and helps companies meet sustainability regulations and consumer demand

Challenges:

Quality & Appearance: Can be more variable in quality and color than virgin plastic, making clear or light-colored products harder to achieve.

Food Contact: Regulatory approval for direct food contact is complex and varies by region, though some FDA-approved food-grade PCR resins exist

🔧 Common Applications

PCR granules are versatile and used in:

Packaging: Non-food bottles, containers, shrink film, and bags.

Consumer Goods: Apparel, footwear, and textiles (often from rPET).

Industrial Uses: Construction materials, automotive parts, and electronics casings

Plastic granules, also known as resin pellets or nurdles, are small, hard particles that serve as the raw material for a vast array of plastic products.

They are typically about the size of a grain of rice and come in various colors and shapes depending on the type of plastic they represent.  

These tiny spheres are produced through a chemical process involving polymers, which are large molecules made up of repeating subunits. Once created, plastic granules are transported to manufacturing facilities where they undergo a process of heating, melting, and molding to form the final plastic product.

Different Material's Parameter for reference only