Bottlers say PCR usage rose, clearing minimum

Newly released data shows many major bottlers increased their post-consumer PET use in beverage containers sold into California last year, surpassing the state’s 15% minimum recycled content mandate for that year and putting them on track to hit the expanded mandate for 2025.

Among the highlights: Niagara Bottling and Pepsi Cola Bottling Group, the first- and second-largest beverage producers in the state, increased post-consumer recycled PET use by 11% and 24%, respectively, from 2023 to 2024, the new figures show.

But some major resin users remain out of compliance with the PCR mandate, using little to no recycled resin at all in 2023 or 2024.

California began requiring beverage manufacturers to report their annual virgin and recycled resin use beginning in 2018, with the first few years providing a rough snapshot of PCR consumption in the state. The early reports were non-standardized: Some producers provided only percentages without weight figures, some provided numbers without indicating what exactly they referred to, and some simply reported they didn’t know the answer.

Much has changed since then. Reports are standardized so that each producer is reporting the same figures, allowing an apples-to-apples comparison each year. Producers also report virgin and PCR use for each resin code, allowing for an analysis of HDPE and PP recycled content use as well.

But the most significant change since the reporting began was the 2020 passage of Assembly Bill 793, which established minimum PCR mandates for beverage containers covered by the state’s redemption program, the vast majority of which are PET. Beginning in 2022, producers were required to include an average of 15% PCR in their beverage containers, and the reports indicate how PCR consumption has grown in the years since that mandate.

The latest data, published April 15 by the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery, shows many major bottlers were in compliance with that requirement in 2024. Some brand owners that have multiple bottler subsidiaries in the state were reported on a separate sheet.

As of the beginning of this year, the requirement increased to 25%, and the latest data shows many bottlers are on track to hit the increased mandate as well.

Additionally, the figures show some producers are lowering overall PET use in their bottles. The Coca-Cola Company, for instance, backslid from 22% PCR in 2023 to 20% in 2024, but the beverage giant also lowered total PET use from 70 million pounds to 66 million pounds. 

These figures show post-consumer and virgin PET use for major PET container beverage producers in California in 2024 and 2023, in descending order by RPET use:

A handful of large resin users remain far out of compliance. In 2024, for example, Stremicks Heritage Foods and John Lenore and Co. used 35.8 million pounds and 32.0 million pounds of virgin PET, respectively, and neither reported using any PCR. Neither company used PCR PET in 2023, either, according to the report from that year.

CalRecycle spokesman Lance Klug told Plastics Recycling Update the agency is currently reviewing PCR report submissions to determine compliance. So far, no producers have been issued penalties for noncompliance for 2024, he noted. The mandate allows beverage producers to submit a compliance plan detailing why they failed to hit the mandated PCR level, and how they’ll do so in the future. Companies will be eligible to do that once they’re issued a violation and penalty, Klug added.

The report shows very low PCR use in other categories – out of 41 million pounds of total HDPE use, only 1.6% was recycled resin, and out of 13 million total pounds of PP used in beverage containers, less than 1% was PCR.

A version of this story appeared in Plastics Recycling Update on Apr. 23.