Plastics recyclers ranking reveals doubling in reprocessing rates since 2009

The Plastics News North American Recyclers & Brokers ranking and directory is out, with 186 companies listed and 158 giving us volume figures for reprocessed plastics sold on the open market. The results show reprocessing rates have doubled since 2009. When flattening out the top 25 to a comparable figure, the average per company came in at 266 million pounds per year for 2024 and 133 million in 2009.

Diving into the numbers, our full list represents 12.8 billion pounds of recycled plastics sold in 2024, down 7 percent. However, a few large-volume recyclers are now completely dedicated to captive use and no longer sell material to outside customers. Coming off our list are Advanced Drainage Systems Inc. and Berry Global Group Inc., making year-over-year aggregate ranking total comparisons less insightful. As these captive figures fall off, grand totals do not reflect less material being reused, just less moving business to business.

This year's total breaks out to 81 percent reprocessed vs. 19 percent brokered. The breakout by source is 56 percent post-industrial vs. 44 percent post-consumer.

High density polyethylene and polypropylene were the top materials, and it's interesting to note here that virgin resin pricing for PE was up 20 percent and polypropylene was up 13 percent in 2024.

Resin prices are expected to be volatile in 2025, which could affect the cost structure for virgin plastic production, making room once again for the higher-cost production of recycled resins to gain market share.

It is very difficult to gather current data. Many other aggregate reports cover figures anywhere from two to four years ago. PN's survey of reprocessors earned a 47 percent response rate for 2024 material volumes, making our report both timely and informative. So, a shout out to everyone who responded to our data requests this year.

• B&B Plastics Inc. of Rialto, Calif., takes the No. 1 spot in overall post-industrial material at 779 million pounds.

• KW Plastics Recycling of Troy, Ala., takes the No. 1 spot in overall post-consumer materials at 437.5 pounds.

• Waste Management Recycle America LLC of Houston takes the No. 1 spot for reprocessed material at 655 million pounds.

• Glezco ERS Del Occidente SA de CV of Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico.

• Nuvida Plastic Technology Inc. of Monmouth Junction, N.J.

• Arthur Products LLC of Longmeadow, Mass.

Did you know we published our first directory of recyclers in 1993? Coverage also included a poll: Some 95.5 percent of the respondents said they supported recycling legislation. Top approaches voted were government procurement quotas and mandated recycled content. Bans and fees received the smallest percentage of the votes.

What was on Page 1 in that same issue? Results of another poll faxed to processors asking them what they thought of the then-American Plastics Council's "Take Another Look at Plastic" advertising campaign aimed at improving the overall image of plastics. In case you are curious about the results, it received an 87.3 percent approval rating.

In May 25, 1998, PN had its first ranking of 180 companies reprocessing 4.9 billion pounds of plastic, making the average per company back then 27.2 million pounds.

Today we are seeing nine times more material in our ranking but are still talking about the same issues facing the industry.

One area ripe for recycling is film, almost never noted in our survey responses. According to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation's 2024 Milestone Study on Plastics Waste Management in the U.S. and Canada, plastic film is just slightly the majority of plastic packaging generated but is rarely collected in residential curbside collections in the U.S., compared with Canada's 9 percent collection rate. For just one household on my street alone, I separate quite a lot of film from accepted packaging to sort over to the trash bin every week.

Missing from the ranking? Contact me at [email protected].

Find all our rankings and lists online at www.plasticsnews.com/businessdata. All-Access subscribers can download spreadsheet versions.

Keller is editorial research coordinator for Plastics News and author of the All Things Data blog. Follow her on Linkedin.