Through the first four months of 2016, export volumes of recovered plastics were 7.7 percent lower than totals from this time last year.
In April, the most recent month for which figures are available, scrap plastics exports totaled 401.67 million pounds, an increase of 11.8 percent from March 2016 export levels. That marked the third straight month of volume gains over 10 percent.
When matched against April 2015 levels, however, the volume of plastic scrap exports in the month was down by 10.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the weighted price of recovered plastic exports in April 2016 was 16.8 cents per pound, down 2.0 percent from its March standing. That price-per-pound figure was down 8.7 percent from the price level in April 2015.
With 1.34 billion pounds of scrap plastics exported through the first four months of 2016, the volume was down 7.7 percent from the April 2015 year-to-date (YTD) figure. At 17.0 cents per pound, the average price through April 2016 was down by 8.6 percent from its 2015 YTD standing.
This report is based on statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics.
