This article appeared in the March 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.
A lot can change in a decade. Exports of recovered plastic out of the U.S. have been on a downward trend for the past few years, and in 2023, the amount exported totaled less than one fifth of the amount exported a decade earlier.
The 2023 export volume of 918 million pounds was the lowest volume since the U.S. Department of Commerce began maintaining records in 2002. The 2023 figure represents a dramatic shift from 2014, when exports hit a record high of 4.8 billion pounds shipped out of the U.S. in a single year.
The decrease has been driven by a confluence of market shifts and global regulatory changes, including China closing the door to scrap plastic imports from 2018 onward and the Basel Convention adding new rules for shipments of recovered plastic worldwide.
Here’s a look at how U.S. scrap plastic exports have shifted over the past decade.
This article appeared in the March 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.
