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The recycling industry has not escaped the fallout from a tight trucking market. Recent regulatory movement and a growing driver shortage have contributed to rising freight costs, just months after extreme weather impacted the shipping sector.
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A plastics reclaimer and exporter plans to close its doors, citing impacts from China’s import restrictions as a major factor in the company’s downfall.
Scrap plastic exported out of the U.S. is moving to Southeast Asia, where reclaimers are dramatically increasing purchases as China closes its doors to recovered materials. New figures illustrate that shift.
The value of recovered HDPE and PET packaging is flat as the new year begins.
A representative from a European firm that has felt the direct impacts of China’s import restrictions on recovered plastic recently offered an inside look at the fallout from the unprecedented disruption to industry trade.
Chinese plastics recycling companies are considering processing infrastructure investments in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and elsewhere.
With the value of e-plastics plummeting and a major export market crumbling, North American firms are scrambling to identify ways to manage the material.
Another company that uses RPET in thermoform packaging has been acquired by Graham Partners, a Philadelphia-based private investment firm.
There is growing chatter that China’s ban on imports of many recovered plastics will grow the country’s demand for virgin resins.
Data from the sale of recyclable plastic bottles in early December suggest the value of recovered packaging will end the year in a slightly weak position.