The Plastenco Story - Part II.

PETE is brilliant…

I didn’t leave the school, the Faculty of Architecture of the CTU, after graduating. My goal was to stir up my surroundings. Students can’t leave school without solving the world’s problems. They should feel that they are saving the world with what they have learned in school. I began to address the world’s plastic disaster from my position as an educator. This role has offered me many helpers each semester.

For a few years, this was enough for my immature soul. And I still feel that it is a topic worthy of being included in the curriculum at all levels of education and in all subjects taught, because plastic waste is not diminishing. Its symbol has become the PET bottle, an ingenious invention of the 1970s. A hygienic, lightweight and beautiful PET bottle.

In an ideal world, you would not see a PET bottle anywhere but in your backpack, car or cottage, because people would value it highly and not waste its material. Polyethylene terephthalate is t

t is a really precious material. It is extremely strong and flexible for its weight. It’s shiny like glass and warm to the touch.

PET can be enriched with many additives that resist UV radiation or prevent the penetration of other molecules. When you start to look into PET bottles and learn about all their properties, you really start to like them. Having your own PET bottle is then something of a holiday. Something I’ve come to enjoy. A luxury I’ve indulged in.

But what’s next for the PET? And what about the tons of PETs that accumulate in the world?

Author. arch. Kateřina Nováková, PhD.