In a new report, consulting firm C-MACC of Houston has identified the location of the current post-consumer recycling market.
Unfortunately, for some, the title of the report is "Packager PCR goals: Between a rock and a hard place."
In the report, C-MACC officials state that recycled plastic content targets "look increasingly out of reach amid seller and buyer pressure" and that sustainability targets across the packaging industry "may enter a new phase marked less by ambition and more by erosion."
They added that as the market moves through the first quarter of 2025, "a wave of economic and policy shifts is pulling the rug from under once-bold environmental commitments, particularly around decarbonization and recycled resin use."
"Recyclers face a margin squeeze, significantly, if costs rise and operating rates stay low, C-MACC said.
One of the report's conclusions is that packagers "increasingly find themselves caught in the crossfire between upstream resin suppliers and downstream brand owners, facing growing pressures but reacting divergingly."
It also reaches a conclusion that plastic producers close to customers, such as Dow Inc.'s PackStudio efforts and expansion of the PCR portfolio at Nova Chemicals "will likely prove increasingly beneficial to them over time."
The full report is available for purchase at the C-MACC website.
C-MACC was launched in 2020 by Cooley May and Graham Copley, both financial and chemical market veterans. The firm added a U.S. polymer pricing service in early 2023 and in early 2024 formed a materials pricing partnership with consulting firm Plastic Experts International of Fort Worth, Texas.
In late 2024, C-MACC formed a partnership with consulting firm ChemOrbis to deliver polymer market analysis and consulting services to a global network of chemical and plastics market players.