Entrepreneurs succeed in transforming used PET plastic bottles into mineral paper

"We manufacture ecological paper created with recycled plastic bottles, calcium carbonate and stone. We don't use water or chemicals, such as chlorine. The mineral paper is stronger than the standard, you can not break it with your hands, is waterproof, has the quality of being photodegradable and only absorbs the necessary amount of ink when printing," said Ever Adrian Nava, cofounder of the "Cronology" company, located in Ecatepec, a municipality in Mexico State, just north from Mexico City.

Powered by "Cronology" technology, making one ton of paper saves up to 20 trees and 56,000 liters of water. Besides, its production process is 15 percent cheaper because it requires no chemicals like chlorine. Another benefit of this system is that with 235 kilograms of pellets (beads of PET) a ton of mineral paper is made, also in just eight hours 24,000 kilograms of plastic can be obtained.

Before converting the PET into paper, it is necessary to first convert the recycled plastic bottles into pellets (plastic beads) by crushing them with various pieces of calcium carbon, to create a mixture which is subjected to a casting process with over a hundred degrees Celsius, to form sheets of large paper that are rolled and form sheets.

The original idea of this type of paper is to reduce production costs and avoid deforestation, since the country currently produces 700,000 tons of paper per year to meet the needs of the local market which translates in 10, 000, 300 million dollars.

About 33 percent of paper produced in Mexico is for books and notebooks, 25 percent for wrapping, and the rest for toilet paper and wrapped foods, the product of the Mexican company intends to replace them.

The machine that created by Ever Nava with his teammate Erick Zamudio, is similar to the one for tortilla manufacture, since the peta paper is made from a "paste" that results in a waterproof paper with a similar texture to baking vouchers and it is friendly to the environment because it degrades in just six months. The only downside is that in the mineral part it can not be written with ink gel because it contains alcohol and the product does not support it.

"By not cutting trees, nor using water we reduce costs and help the planet. To produce one ton of traditional paper a deterioration of 100 years is caused to the environment, with peta paper we eliminate that, "says Ever Nava.

Although in Spain and Taiwan companies manufacturing peta paper with similar processes already exist, the Cronology system is four times cheaper. However, to consolidate the project, the founders participated in a contest for emerging green companies that has been organized for the last five years in Mexico, in order to get financing for their company. (Agencia ID)