This article appeared in the December 2023 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

In 2021, Canadian recycling programs collected 201 million kilograms of bottles, marking a large step up from 2018’s numbers. A recently released report from consulting company Stina gathered data using a voluntary annual plastic recycling survey.

That survey found that 201 million kilograms of post-consumer Canadian bottles were reported recovered, an increase of 3.3 million kilograms over 2018. PET remained the primary resin type for bottles recovered, making up 55.5% of the total. It did, however, lose some ground to colored HDPE in 2021 compared to 2018. In 2021, 111.6 million kilograms of PET bottles were recovered, a decrease of 4.5 million kilograms over 2018. About 35.6 million kilograms of HDPE natural bottles and 50.5 million kilograms of HDPE colored bottles were recovered, an increase of 4.2 million kilograms and 3.9 million kilograms over 2018, respectively.

Below are the full details from the report. All figures are in millions of kilograms.

This article appeared in the December 2023 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.