North American prices for recycled PET pellets have had a slight increase over the last quarter.
Clear post-consumer PET pellet prices have increased by 2 cents per pound and green post-consumer pellets increased 1 cent, according to sources in contact with Plastics News.
These price changes will be shown in the Nov. 11 PN resin pricing chart.
"Nationally, you still have companies aiming to use more recycled content," a recycler in Michigan said. "Normally, prices would be going down right now, but there are just more factors this year."
Demand has been growing, in part, as a result of the hurricanes that hit the U.S.
"The hurricane happens to be good for PET markets, in the sense that because of the hurricane, you've had a lot of emergency shipments of bottled water to Florida," a consultant from the East said.
Bottled water and soft drink sales are normally down in the fall, but the weather caused an unexpected rise in demand.
Recycled PET prices have continued to rise throughout 2024, but sources expect prices to come down slightly in the beginning of 2025.