Is There any Difference Between PET and PETE?

August 31, 2016, by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Katherine

I’m confused about PET and PETE. Are they the same thing or different?

Debra's Answer

PET and PETE are both acronyms for polyethylene terephthalate.

Polyethylene terephthalate is a clear, tough plastic in the polyester
family. It is made from only two chemicals that are tightly bonded together.

PET has been approved as safe by the FDA and the International Life Sciences Institute
(ILSI). In 1994, ILSI stated that "PET polymer has a long history of safe consumer use,
which is supported by human experience and numerous toxicity studies.”

There is one important thing to know about polyethylene terephthalate.

Because it has “phthalate” in its name, some people think PET contains toxic “phthalates.” This is not correct.

The toxic “phthalates” that leach out of plastics are “orthophthalates,” which is a completely different type of chemical than “terephthalate.”

I also researched to see if there was any outgassing from PET into the air. NASA has a website (outgassing.nasa.gov) where you can look up all kinds of materials they have assessed for outgassing because they need to choose materials for spaceships that do not outgas. They found that PET needed zero curing time to be used in a spaceship.

Update 2020: Read more about PET here.