Plastics recycling companies are seeing higher freight costs amid a tight trucking market, and the logistical challenges are predicted to increase in the coming years.
The U.S. and China have fired their latest salvo in their ongoing trade war, and this time tariffs have been applied to recovered plastics and a number of other U.S. recyclables.
Recycled plastic yarn manufacturer Unifi saw an increase in sales last year, including stronger demand for its recycled flake and chip. But higher PET bale prices cut into profits.
Recovered PET prices have continued their steady rise, while natural and color HDPE values have remained flat over the past month.
Low-cost recovered PE film continues to drive record profits for Trex, which uses hundreds of millions of pounds of the plastic in its composite lumber products each year.
The Chinese government has announced key policies in recent weeks, including a plan to ban all recovered material imports by 2020.
Sellers are seeing higher prices for recovered PET, HDPE and PP bales, according to the latest markets analysis.
The U.S. will enact tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products beginning July 6. Vowing retaliation, China released its own list of U.S. products to target in July.
A new ocean plastics prevention effort connects brand owners with collected oceanbound material that can be used in manufacturing. A key stakeholder recently described the four-step approach the project will entail, and what that will look like on the ground.
The upward price trends for recovered PET and natural HDPE continues, according to the latest market data.