Abstract: A method and apparatus for recycling used plastic bottles formed of a lower base cup and an upper container with a neck ring comprising in combination: a processing star wheel for supporting bottles by their neck rings and for moving the supported bottles sequentially through a plurality of processing stations; an input conveyor for sequentially feeding bottles to the processing star wheel; a first processing station for inserting pressurized air into the containers to return them to their essentially initial shape; a second processing station for inserting hot water into the containers for cleaning purposes and for effecting their contraction; a third processing station for removing the base cups from the containers; a base cup conveyor for feeding the separated base cups from the system for granulization and recycling; a fourth processing station for removing the labels from the containers; a label conveyor for feeding the separated labels from the system; a fifth processing station for removing the water f