Effect of contaminants and processing regime on the mechanical properties and moldability of postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate bottles.

•Traces of papers greatly affect mechanical properties and processibility of PC-PET.•PE traces, caps and rings, has less effect on moldability of PC-PET.•When processing post-consumer PETs, allow no papers within the PET waste stream.•Number of melt processing steps should be minimized when reprocessing PC-PET.