Nearly 26 million pounds of new demand for post-consumer recycled resin was generated during the second year of a recognition program run by the Association of Plastic Recyclers.
The APR Recycling Demand Champions Campaign spurred more than triple the amount of recycled resin demand from its initial year, the trade group said.
APR created Demand Champions in 2017 "to stimulate new markets for recycled plastics," the group said.
"Creating new market demand is a key focus for APR," President Steve Alexander said in a statement. "When we first introduced the campaign, we were pleasantly surprised at the variety of potential uses for PCR [post-consumer resin] that were identified by companies.
"Our goal was to simply expand how companies viewed potential applications for PCR use in products and create new markets for material. As we continue to work with companies to meet their sustainability goals, we see tremendous potential for growth in demand markets for recycled plastics," he continued.
Demand Champions participants measure their post-consumer resin usage by developing new applications and by increasing use of recycled content in a current application. Companies also can purchase so-called "work in process" durable goods made from post-consumer resin that they use in their manufacturing facilities.
"The APR Recycling Demand Champions Campaign is all about ongoing and continued growth in demand, which is key to the success of plastics recycling," said Liz Bedard, director of the APR Olefins/Rigid Plastic Recycling Program, in a statement.