Recycled Materials | 3A-grade recycled PET flake, 150,000 tons of white flake annually

The barriers to consistent 3A-grade flake

A ton of waste PET bottles can become anything from low-grade scrap to high-value industrial feedstock. The difference is not one machine but a whole system. Bottles of different colors, sources, and conditions mixed together yield flake with wide variation; labels, caps, and non-PET material must be removed; and cleanliness, color, and batch-to-batch consistency decide which downstream products a buyer can make. Reaching 3A grade — and holding it across long production runs — is where most producers struggle.

Zhihao Recycling Technology (志浩再生) has focused on PET waste plastic recovery, recycled plastic production, and fiber utilization, building a business system that runs from PET bottle recovery to recycled flake production. Its products cover 3A+ white flake, 3A white flake, 3A blue-white flake, and 3A green flake.

Sorting first

The first test is feedstock. Because different colors, sources, and conditions produce visibly different flake, Zhihao sorts at the bottle-source stage, then processes incoming material through automated sorting equipment. Its recycled plastics industrial park is equipped with automatic whole-bottle sorting and optical sorting, and runs multiple fiber-grade recycled PET flake lines.

After sorting, material passes through crushing, washing, dewatering, separation, and color sorting, with different colors and grades processed into separate product lines.

High-precision colour sorting

For PET flake, color is not merely cosmetic. White, blue-white, and green flake go to different applications with different color-consistency requirements; once recycled PET enters textile, fiber, and packaging production, color stability directly affects the finished product.

Zhihao uses multi-stage washing and high-precision color sorting to classify and purify flake: 3A+ and 3A white flake emphasize high cleanliness and color control, while blue-white and green flake follow separate color standards. The range covers 3A+ RPET flake, 3A transparent flake, 3A blue-white flake, and green flake, serving textile, packaging, household, and food-and-beverage applications.

Cleanliness and stability

As recycled PET moves into scaled application, buyers look beyond the presence of impurities to cleanliness, color, stability, and batch consistency. Material passes through multiple washing, separation, and screening stages to remove labels, caps, impurities, and other non-PET material, then through sorting and purification into different grades.

Zhihao also emphasizes closed-loop management and material traceability, from incoming feedstock to finished flake, supported by a quality control system. A single batch meeting specification is one thing; meeting the same specification consistently over time is another.

Scale and supply

Competition in high-quality recycled PET ultimately comes down to capacity and supply capability. Zhihao's recycled plastics industrial park in Xuyi, Jiangsu covers about 335 mu and is planned for multiple recycled PET lines. Six fiber-grade recycled plastic flake lines are in operation, processing nearly 200,000 tons of recycled plastic bottles a year, with recycled plastic flake capacity of 150,000 tons a year.

The company is expanding further: a polymer new-material project that broke ground in 2024, with total investment of about RMB 1.15 billion, plans added capacity for fiber-grade r-PET flake, food-grade r-PET chip, and recycled polyester staple fiber, totaling 316,000 tons.

Standards and certifications

Zhihao holds Coca-Cola SGP certification and has been recognized as a national-level high-tech enterprise, a provincial specialized and sophisticated enterprise, and a provincial green factory. It serves customers in textile fiber and beverage packaging.

About the exhibitor

Jiangsu Zhihao Recycling Technology Limited is a full-industry-chain environmental enterprise covering PET waste plastic recovery, recycled plastic production, and fiber utilization, with annual output of 3A-grade-and-above pure white flake reaching 150,000 tons at domestically leading scale.

The company holds Coca-Cola SGP certification along with national high-tech, provincial specialized and sophisticated, and provincial green factory recognition, and serves leading textile fiber and beverage packaging customers with customized, stable products.

Booth: B1D33

At-a-glance

Zhihao Recycling | Recycled Materials | 3A+ and 3A-grade recycled PET flake, 150,000 tons of white flake a year

Zhihao Recycling: 3A-Grade Recycled PET Flake from Waste Bottles