This study deals with the degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste through aminolysis with various amines. All of these degradation experiments were carried out at ambient temperature and at normal pressure. Although PET is known to be recycled in many ways, but still there is a need of development of other environment friendly recycling techniques. The amines used to study the degradation of PET waste were namely methylamine, ethylamine, and n-butyl amine, respectively where the degradation of PET waste completes in 45 days. The aminolyzed products so obtained were characterized by using various conventional techniques such as spectroscopic techniques namely IR, NMR, and simultaneous differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). In the present research work, a useful method of PET recycling by using various amines was successfully established. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 115: 3074-3080, 2010