PET Plastic (#1)
PET, the clear plastic behind most drink bottles, is a real, tradeable scrap category with a live price, but exactly like aluminium cans, it's the wrong tool for a household bag of empties. Here's who this category is genuinely for, and how to sell into it properly at the scale it actually suits.
PET, polyethylene terephthalate, is the clear, lightweight plastic used for most drink bottles, and it's marked with the number 1 inside a small recycling triangle on the base or side. It's the most widely and successfully recycled plastic in Australia, largely because container deposit infrastructure already exists to collect it at real scale. On its own, a single bottle is worth almost nothing, the value comes from genuine volume and from baling, compressing loose bottles into dense, transportable blocks. PET shows up beyond drink bottles too, some cosmetic containers, food jars, and cooking oil bottles use the same resin, though drink bottles remain by far the largest and most consistent volume source.
Every Australian state and territory now runs a container deposit scheme paying 10 cents per eligible container, and PET drink bottles are core to every one of those schemes. For a normal household or small collection quantity, that per-container refund beats bulk scrap pricing by a wide margin, there's genuinely no reason to bale a few bags of bottles for scrap when the container refund point pays more per bottle.
Bulk PET selling makes sense at a different scale entirely: collection point operators, recycling businesses, and anyone consolidating volume well beyond what a household or casual collection round produces, the same distinction that applies to our aluminium cans (UBC) category. If that's genuinely your situation, it's a real, tradeable category worth checking.
Rinsing residual liquid and food contamination out of bottles before baling protects the value of the whole load, plastic doesn't tolerate contamination the way some metal grades tolerate light surface coatings. Sorting clear from coloured PET where practical is worth the extra step too, clear material commands a genuine premium since it can be reprocessed into a wider range of products than coloured PET can.
Caps and labels are worth a mention specifically: caps are usually a different resin (commonly polypropylene) to the bottle itself, and labels can be paper or a different plastic again. Some bulk processors handle a degree of this automatically during reprocessing, but removing the obvious ones before baling, where genuinely practical at volume, tends to get a cleaner assessment and a better price.
ScrapTrade's live-priced PET Plastic category is specifically baled, clear PET bottles. Clear material is worth more than coloured PET, sorting the two before baling where practical tends to get a better result. See our full plastic scrap guide for how this compares to HDPE and mixed plastic.
Check today's PET priceLike aluminium cans, PET volume tracks population and consumption more than any single industry. Sydney and Melbourne carry the country's largest population and consumption bases, translating directly into the largest volumes of PET generated, and both have established collection and recycling infrastructure already built around container deposit schemes.
Neither city is a requirement. Genuine bulk PET volume comes from collection operations and recycling businesses anywhere in Australia, and ScrapTrade connects buyers and sellers nationally regardless of where a listing is posted from.
PET recycles into new bottles and packaging with genuinely lower energy use than producing virgin plastic from raw petrochemical feedstock, a real, closed-loop recycling stream that manufacturers actively want to feed into. That's exactly why a properly baled, genuinely clear, well-sorted load has real commercial value, buyers processing at scale can turn it back into new material quickly, which is reflected directly in what they're willing to pay.
Because PET is priced at a lower rate per kilogram than most metals, small differences in the offer matter more to your total return, which makes checking around genuinely worthwhile. On ScrapTrade, you check a live reference price first, then list your baled load at a fixed price, run it as a live auction so verified buyers compete for it, or negotiate directly, negotiation is on by default on every listing. Every listing is GPS-video verified before it goes live, and payment sits in escrow from the moment a deal is confirmed until pickup or delivery is done, so neither side is exposed first. The full case for why that beats a single yard quote is on Why Choose ScrapTrade and Trust & Safety.
Polyethylene terephthalate, the clear, lightweight plastic used for most drink bottles, and marked with the number 1 inside the recycling triangle on the base of the bottle. It's the most widely recycled plastic in Australia, largely thanks to container deposit schemes.
Probably not. Your state's container deposit scheme, 10 cents per eligible container, now available everywhere in Australia, will almost always pay better for a small, casual amount than bulk scrap pricing does. ScrapTrade's PET category is aimed at genuine baled bulk volume, not household recycling.
Collection point operators, recycling businesses, and anyone consolidating genuine volume well beyond household quantities, similar to how the aluminium cans (UBC) category works. If you're operating at that scale, it's a real, tradeable category worth checking.
Yes, clear PET is worth more than coloured PET (green being the most common alternative), since clear material can be reprocessed into a wider range of products. Sorting clear from coloured before baling, where practical, gets a better result.
Ideally yes, caps are often a different plastic resin (usually polypropylene) and labels can be a different material again, both count as contamination that affects the value of the baled load. Some processors handle a degree of this automatically, but cleaner input generally means a better price.
Not for grading purposes, crushed or whole bottles are the same material. Crushing does improve transport density before baling, which some collectors find worthwhile at real volume, but it's a logistics choice rather than something that changes the grade.
No fixed minimum, but realistically this category suits genuine bulk volume best, collection operations and recycling businesses rather than a single household's bottles. For casual, small-scale disposal, your state's container deposit scheme remains the better option.
Both are genuinely valuable, widely-recycled plastics, and relative pricing shifts with market conditions on both sides. PET generally has the edge in recycling infrastructure and demand across Australia, largely thanks to container deposit collection volume, but checking a live reference price for both is the reliable way to know which is worth more at any given time.
Check a live price, then sell at a fixed price, run an auction, or negotiate directly.
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