Abstract: A method for the manufacture of polyesters with recycle content by feeding to at least one reaction zone recycle feed comprising an ester recycle material selected from the group consisting of r-DMT, transesterified r-DMT and combinations thereof to form a reaction mixture comprising recycled content in at least one reaction zone; reacting the reaction mixture to form a polyester oligomer mixture with recycled content; and polycondensing the recycle content oligomer mixture to form a polyester with recycle content; wherein the feeding step further comprises feeding to at least one reaction zone a virgin feed, the virgin feed including at least one virgin diol component, the virgin feed further comprises a virgin diacid component, and the virgin diacid component is at least 90 mole % terephthalic acid based on the total diacid content of the virgin feed; and wherein the reacting step comprises reacting the reaction mixture at a temperature of at least 250° C.

Abstract: A method for manufacture of polyesters with recycle content is described in various aspects. The methods of the present disclosure effectively and cost-efficiently incorporates recycled DMT into existing TPA-based polyester manufacturing systems. Recycle feed compositions for manufacture of polyesters with recycle content and recycled content polyesters are also described.