Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
      Machine builders meet pressing needs for plastic in 2020
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
      Plastic Globes ask: Was there a lighter side in 2020?
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Kickstart: Maybe we can expect a poem on recycling
      Kickstart: Celebrating the 'dumb material that I love to use so much'
      Kickstart: Recycling is complicated, even when you want to do it
      Kickstart: Unilever calls for 'living wage' pay in supply base
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
      Chase expands giving campaign in 2020
      McDivitt will showcase Ascend's COVID-19 work on CNBC's Mad Money
      Move over, Plastic Man: Here comes Plastic Woman
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
    • Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
      A timeline of the industry's COVID response
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
      Mailbag: Oil-plastics connection is overstated
      Mailbag: Plastics recycling not cost-effective
      Mailbag: Price increases hurting North American PE buyers
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Video: Structural foam molding
      Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • White Papers
    • Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
      Sponsored By CDS MACHINES
      Facing medical equipment shortages during COVID-19 outbreak?
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Transform your molding capabilities with the Canon Shuttle Mold System
    • Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
March 09, 2009 02:00 AM

Recyclers losing out on HDPE

Mike Verespej
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    A significant increase in the amount of high density polyethylene bottles collected in the U.S. but exported to other countries is putting pressure on U.S. reclaimers to find sources of supply elsewhere.

    Compounding that problem, the HDPE bottle recycling rate dropped to 26 percent in 2007, from 27.1 percent in 2005 and 26.4 percent in 2006.

    “We're constantly purchasing a substantial volume of material from Central and South America and from Canada,” said KW Plastics General Manager Scott Saunders. The Troy, Ala., firm is the largest HDPE recycler in the U.S. “We also have to fight with other reclaimers over a smaller pie,” Saunders said in a March 2 phone interview.

    More than 23 percent of the HDPE bottles collected in the U.S. in 2007 were exported, taking 214 million pounds of supply out of domestic recyclers' hands — 50 percent more than the 145 million pounds that were exported in 2004, according to a recently released report on HDPE recycling.

    That marks the second straight year that the amount of HDPE exported has increased by nearly 15 percent. The trend has some HDPE recyclers claiming foul.

    “We can't pay the prices [that recyclers outside the U.S.] pay for recycled HDPE because we don't have the subsidies they have and there is not an economic advantage to our customers to use recycled content,” said Tamsin Ettefagh, vice president of Envision Plastics in Reidsville, N.C., the nation's second-largest HDPE reclaimer. “We are hurting domestically, because we are not subsidized and don't have mandates to use recycled content outside of California.”

    To call attention to the situation, Ettefagh sent a letter last month to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., outlining the situation.

    “Every pound of HDPE scrap that leaves our country must be replaced by a virgin pound of fuel-derived HDPE,” she wrote. “The Chinese understand this. With the removal of scrap tariffs [by China's government] and the addition of freight subsidies, they are able to compete at much more attractive scrap pricing that we can pay domestically. The exporting of our feedstock to China and other Asian countries threatens the security of our country. If this trend continues, we will be forced to use more fuel-derived primary feedstocks.”

    Running at full capacity, U.S. HDPE recyclers could use nearly 1.1 billion pounds of material — almost 200 million pounds more than is collected annually.

    “The domestic industry has the capacity to transform all of our curbside collected HDPE back into reusable resins,” Ettefagh said. “We could handle all the pounds collected.”

    Lack of supply has contributed to an excess unused capacity of between 322 million pounds and 378 million pounds annually since 2003, the report said.

    The latest HDPE report was unveiled Feb. 25 at the Plastics Recycling Conference in Orlando, Fla., by Patty Moore, president of Moore Recycling Associates Inc. in Sonoma, Calif., which conducted the survey of HDPE reclaimers for the first time, replacing R.W. Beck Inc. The report was officially released by the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va., and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers in Washington.

    Part of the 2007 decline in the recycling rate and in material collected (from 928.1 million pounds to 920.6 million pounds) can be attributed to a change in methodology. “I'm not surprised by the decline, because we made some corrections to stop the double-counting of bales,” Ettefagh said.

    Regardless, the continued reduction in the amount of recycled material is a concern, she said. “It is a scary thing because it is an actual step backward.”

    KW's Saunders agreed, adding he is skeptical the amount of HDPE collected in 2007 was even as high as the report claims. “The report might be a little generous, if anything,” he said.

    To compensate for exports, the report said U.S. recyclers imported 54 million pounds of material in 2007. But industry sources suggest the actual number is three times that amount.

    Recyclers do not expect the HDPE recycling rate to improve.

    “The material we need is almost exclusively collected at curbside, and that infrastructure hasn't expanded in 10 years and is not fully utilized,” Saunders said.

    Add in the economic climate and 2009 is shaping up as “an extremely difficult year,” he said.

    “Before the economic meltdown, there was a lot of interest in the use of recycled content. But that has slowed because everyone is interested in the bottom line. I would not be surprised to see our industry contract a little bit,” Saunders said.

    That may have already started. HDPE recycler Sundance Products, which shut down operations in December, then reopened for less than a week in January before closing again, officially announced in late February that it was going out of business after failing to find a buyer.

    The ACC/APR report also gives recycling data for other plastics, including 2007 statistics for PET that were released in October by APR and the National Association for PET Container Resources.

    HDPE and PET bottles accounted for 96.3 percent of the plastic bottle market and 99.2 percent of the pounds of plastic bottles recycled in 2007, the report said. The seven largest HDPE bottle reclaimers recycled 81 percent of the HDPE in the U.S, the same as the year before.

    The ACC/APR report said 17.6 million pounds of polypropylene were recycled in 2007, down from 18.4 million pounds in 2006 and 10.1 million in 2005. The report also estimated that 400,000 pounds of PVC were recycled in 2007, as were 300,000 pounds of low density PE.

    For materials other than PET and HDPE, said the report, “the actual level of recycling is limited by the continuing challenge to reach a critical mass of readily recognizable bottles for economical collection and processing.”

    Recycled HDPE is used in a variety of applications. The report categorized them as nonfood bottles, 43 percent; pipe, 23 percent (up from 17 percent in 2006); automotive, 11 percent (up from 2 percent); lumber, 7 percent; lawn and garden products, 5 percent; film and sheet, 4 percent; and buckets, pallets and crates combined, 3 percent.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • Processor of the Year submissions
      • White Papers