China’s import policy changes are straining recovered plastics export markets, particularly impacting mixed rigids. Recycling companies have been forced to stockpile and even landfill the materials, while numerous municipal programs have stopped accepting mixed plastics.
Organizations raising $150 million to prevent ocean plastics in Southeast Asia say the region will present challenges wholly different from those in the U.S. Two groups recently offered new details on the goals and logistics of the effort.
Over the past month, recovered PET and film values have fallen, but HDPE grades have seen slight increases.
Michael Stephen, Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association
Recyclers depend for their survival on demand for plastic products made with their recyclate, but plastic is under attack from environmentalists, and line after line – and sometimes whole factories – are closing.
Nina Bellucci Butler of More Recycling states correctly in a Sept. 27 article in Plastics Recycling Update that “we have capacity to purchase HDPE, PET, PP and other resins. We don’t have the capacity to take the material from the MRF [and] further segregate it so we can get those discrete resins to market.”
Accelerating the transition to a circular economy has become a high priority for major companies and governments around the globe.
Since its founding in 1987, our organization, the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), has worked to expand boundaries while staying true to our foremost mission of protecting and promoting the PET package.
Earlier this year, ABC, the national government broadcaster in Australia, ran a series of programs called “War on Waste.” These shows were dedicated to putting the huge amount of waste generated in the forefront of people’s thinking.
Europe has laid out its legislative and long-term policy blueprint on waste and recycling, with big changes in store for plastics recycling. Continue Reading