Monday, 28 October 2013

On This Day in Science History - October 24 - PET

October 24th is Nathaniel Wyeth's birthday. Wyeth was an American mechanical engineer who developed the PET plastic bottle. He wanted to design a plastic bottle that could withstand the pressure of storing carbonated beverages and turned to the polymer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) because of its light weight, ease of shaping and nearly unbreakable strength. Today, PET bottles are one of the most widely used plastics used as packaging material for a variety of beverages, detergents, oil and cosmetics. They are one of the most easily recyclable plastics for reuse and can be identified by their "1-PETE" resin identification code within the recycle symbol on the packaging.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.


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