Is China's food-grade bottle-to-bottle sector experiencing a policy breakthrough? Boretech is making early preparations

#Introduction#

By the end of 2024, the State Administration for Market Regulation and several other ministries and commissions issued several policy documents related to recycled plastics, proposing measures such as improving recycling standards for waste products and improving the quality and use of recycled materials.

Compared to the more mature systems in Europe, the United States, and Japan, China's food-grade recycled PET (rPET) is still in a cautious development phase, with regulatory priorities focusing on traceability management, quality control, and safety assessments. Once fully liberalized, the bottle-to-bottle model will unleash tremendous potential in China.

1. Current Regulatory Framework

my country's management of food contact materials is primarily based on the Food Safety Law and the General Safety Requirements for Food Contact Materials and Articles (GB 4806.1-2016). Currently, the use of recycled plastics in food contact applications remains strictly restricted, with only virgin resin or recycled materials that meet specific requirements permitted.

2. Signals of Policy Relaxation

On August 1, 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation (Standardization Administration of China) simultaneously released nine national standards related to recycled plastics, which will take effect on February 1, 2026. These standards cover quality standards, product evaluation, ingredient identification, recyclable design, traceability, and environmental assessment, laying the technical foundation for closed-loop recycling systems and food-grade applications.

Bottle-to-bottle involves recycling, cleaning, and re-pelletizing discarded PET bottles. Through deep purification processes such as solid-phase polycondensation (SSP), these bottles are then re-produced into beverage bottles suitable for direct food contact.

International Trends: European and American markets have generally mandated the addition of a certain percentage of rPET to beverage bottles. For example, EU regulations require beverage bottles to contain at least 30% rPET by 2030.

Domestic Current Situation: Domestic beverage bottle production still primarily uses virgin PET, with rPET being used more frequently in non-food-grade applications such as chemical fibers and sheet materials. However, under the pressure of the "dual carbon" initiative and the circular economy, beverage brands are rapidly increasing their interest in food-grade rPET.

Once policies are relaxed, China's bottle-to-bottle industry is expected to experience rapid growth:

The high-value attributes of bottle-to-bottle closed-loop recycling: Currently, the majority of the millions of tons of waste PET bottles generated annually in China are still destined for downcycling, such as chemical fiber production. However, bottle-to-bottle recycling, by achieving a high-value recycling cycle for the raw material, will create a stronger profit-oriented approach. This shift in raw material applications will not only drive waste PET bottle resources toward the bottle sector but will also force the fiber industry to accelerate its exploration of independent fiber-to-fiber recycling systems. Ultimately, a structurally competitive landscape will emerge in the waste PET bottle raw material market, driven by demand for high-value bottle recycling and fiber reuse.

Environmental and cost advantages: Food-grade rPET can reduce carbon emissions by approximately 50% compared to virgin PET and maintain cost competitiveness during periods of crude oil price fluctuations.

▲On February 17,2023,Boretech successfully obtained FDA NOL certification covering the complete washing-pelletzing-SSP process(C-G application conditions).

▲On July 3,2025,Boretech once again independently obtained FDA NOL certification specifically for its SSP process.