Abundant supplies of virgin resin have pushed down North American prices for recycled PET since early 2019.
Even with the recent declines, recycled PET remains more expensive than virgin grades.
This week Plastics News is showing a decrease of 10 cents per pound for all grades of post-consumer PET. That includes both clear and green materials, and both flake and pellets.
Recycled PET prices have been influenced by lower prices for virgin PET bottle resin. So far in 2019, virgin PET bottle resin prices are down a net of 6 cents per pound , according to the Plastics News resin pricing chart. Virgin PET supply continues to outpace demand in the region.
According to a Sept. 5 report from the PetroChem Wire news service, lower virgin PET prices have caused some end users to bypass their normal purchasing of recycled PET, which has driven down these prices.
"The bloated PET market underscores the high cost of recycling the most common consumer plastic, relative to fresh PET pellet made from burning hydrocarbons," the report said.