Post-consumer bottle recycling drops for nearly all materials in US

For the second consecutive week, a new post-consumer plastic bottle recycling report shows falling numbers in the United States.

The latest report, jointly released by the American Chemistry Council and the Association of Plastic Recyclers, shows recycling fell by 2.4 percent in 2016 to about 2.9 billion pounds.

This includes PET, high and low density polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC bottles.

PET and HDPE make up the vast majority of plastic bottles used in the United States, 97.1 percent of the total, according to the 27th annual National Postconsumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Rate Report issued Nov. 7.

The larger report follows a PET-specific post-consumer recycling report issued recently by APR and the National Association for PET Container Resources.

The overall post-consumer plastic bottle recycling rate was 29.7 percent in 2016, down from 31.1 percent in 2015.

HDPE bottle recycling fell by 31.7 million pounds, or 2.8 percent, to “just over 1.1 billion pounds” in 2016, the trade groups reported. The overall recycling rate for these types of bottles — think milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles, for example — fell from 34.4 to 33.4 percent.

PET bottles, as outlined in the earlier report, fell by 44 million pounds to 1.753 billion pounds in 2016. That's down from 1.797 billion pounds in 2015 and an all-time high of 1.812 billion pounds in 2014.

A bright spot in the report is that post-consumer PP bottle recycling continues to increase. While still a small portion of the overall post-consumer bottle market, PP recycling spiked by 15.3 percent in 2016 to 36.6 million pounds. Overall PP collection rate is now over 20 percent.

The PP bottle increase could not blunt the overall decline, however, because that segment only represents 1.8 percent of the postconsumer plastic bottle market in the United States. PET and HDPE account for 97.1 percent, and LDPE checks in at 0.7 percent. PVC is at 0.3 percent, the report states.

“The key to continued growth lies in improving our sorting and collection technologies to deliver consistent, high quality yields that strengthen our global competitiveness,” said APR Executive Director Steve Alexander in a statement.

Steve Russell, vice president of plastics at ACC, said in an email interview that there are some actions that can be taken to reverse the lowering recycling rate.

“Demand for high quality post-use plastics remains strong across a number of market sectors, and there remains a lot of untapped potential to grow demand by increasing the availability of quality material. A lot of investment and innovation at present is focused on improving sortation, consistency and yield. We believe improving quantity and quality of outputs will unlock a lot of previously untapped demand,” Russell said through email.

Russell also pointed to the big picture of plastic recycling growth over time in addressing this year's report.

“Plastics recycling has a track record of long-term growth spanning 25 years. Post-use plastics are valuable materials that have weathered many cycles and different growth factors,” Russell said in a separate statement.

Lower oil prices have driven down virgin resin prices. And that's a problem for recyclers, who typically peg their prices at a discount to those virgin prices. While lower oil and gas feedstocks help virgin resin companies make money while still charging less, the cost for processing recycled resin does not ebb and flow in the same way. And that puts a squeeze on margins for recyclers.

ACC said the five-year annual growth rate for plastic bottle recycling is still at 2.1 percent despite the recent downturn.

“Following more than 20 consecutive years of growth, factors contributed to the recent decline included a slight drop in material collected for recycling, changing export markets, and increased contamination of recyclables. In addition, growth in the use of plastic bottles in packaging was offset by continuing progress in lightweighting and increased use of concentrates in small, lighter bottles,” the trade groups said.

Russell, in the email interview, indicated recycling goes in cycles.

“Like all commodities, plastics recycling has undergone multiple cycles in the last quarter century and has always come out stronger,” Russell said. “One of the keys to long-term growth is to optimize our collection systems — including providing greater clarity about what does and does not go in the bin in communities across the U.S.”