COVID-19 and pricing pressure led companies to seek other supply lines for PET feedstock. | Pixel B/Shutterstock
A confluence of recycled PET market disruptions in 2020 included low prime plastic pricing and supply challenges that led end users to seek feedstock from other sources. Still, experts maintain a surge of RPET demand is fast approaching.
Pyrolysis equipment inside the Agilyx facility in Oregon. | Jared Paben/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Circulate Capital invested in Dalmia Polypro Industries, a plastic bottle recycling company based in Mumbai, India. | Courtesy of Circulate Capital.
The U.S. and Europe have had formal recycling infrastructure in place for decades. That’s not the case in India, where Circulate Capital just invested millions of dollars to boost infrastructure and reduce ocean plastics generation.
Because the U.S. is not a party to the Basel Convention, exports to the 180-plus countries that are parties to the convention will be more complicated, or may even be prohibited by local laws. | AnkaFed/Shutterstock
The U.S. government has made public an agreement with Canada to continue scrap plastic shipments despite global regulations tightening next year. Environmental advocates are troubled by the deal.
Through the new grants, The Recycling Partnership estimates curbside PP recycling will become available to an additional 4 million people nationwide. | RYosha/Shutterstock
Four MRFs in the eastern half of the U.S. will begin sorting polypropylene with financial assistance from major brands, retailers and other industry members brought together through The Recycling Partnership.
China remains the largest buyer of U.S. fiber, importing 1.86 million short tons during the third quarter. | F Armstrong Photography/Shutterstock
Paper and plastic exports continue to trend lower than in previous years, even as shipments increase to certain countries, recent figures show.
Last year, 1.77 billion pounds of PET bottles were collected and sold to reclaimers. | Picsfive/Shutterstock
The U.S. PET bottle recycling rate declined by a percentage point to 27.9% in 2019, though the amount of RPET used to make new bottles increased.
Recycling stakeholders recently gathered virtually for the 2020 MRF Summit.| 9dream studio/Shutterstock
At the recent MRF Summit, held online, recycling leaders tackled a number of trends that are shaping the fortunes of material processors.
In early June, PreZero started the commissioning process at its plant near Riverside, Calif., running test loads of LDPE and LLDPE recovered film and producing pellets.
A company planning multiple U.S. processing plants taking in hard-to-recycle plastics has begun operating its first location in Southern California.
Bales of plastic material for sortation at the Pacific Northwest demonstration facility. | Jared Paben/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Following a similar demonstration in the Pacific Northwest last year, industry stakeholders are launching an initiative to recover additional material from the municipal stream in New York and four other states.