Over the last month, some curbside plastics have seen notable market changes. Meanwhile, prices for paper bales have remained constant, albeit low.
Over the last month, some curbside plastics have seen notable market changes. Meanwhile, prices for paper bales have remained constant, albeit low.
The shifting stream of materials used in packaging has been much-discussed. But while it’s true plastics are being used in more applications, fiber continues to dominate the recycling stream from a volume perspective.
Historically, companies have used post-consumer resin (PCR) because it was a lower cost feedstock than virgin. In recent years, however, pricing for virgin plastic (mostly “wide spec” resin) has fallen below that of PCR (mostly high quality PCR that is suitable for food contact).
Multiple recovered fiber grades continued to decline in price over the past month. The same downward trend was seen for PET and HDPE.
Post-consumer recycled cartons have several end markets throughout North America.
Lately, consumers have been exposed to new – and often confusing – information about recycling, encountering many headlines about the effects of China’s ban on waste imports from the U.S.
The U.S. paper recovery rate has been at or above 63% each year for the past decade.
Every year, the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) releases the U.S. paper recovery for recycling rate. The annual figure informs us how much recovered paper is being used to create new products in a given year and is also an important indicator of how much paper and paper-based packaging is kept out of landfills after use.
