Dive Brief:
- A report released by the National Association of PET Container Resources and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers found that 1.798 million pounds of post-consumer PET bottles were recycled in 2013.
- According to the findings, PET recycling increased by 80 million pounds in 2013.
- The growth helped the PET recycling rate hit 31.2%, a new record for the industry.
Dive Insight:
The groups said that PET recycling still has some stumbling blocks -- for instance, bales of PET are frequently contaminated by waste that is not recyclable, diminishing the volume that is cleared for recycling. The group also said that there is more demand for bottle collections than is available for PET recycling.
In April, the National Association for PET Containers Resources announced that PET recycling was increasing. The report attributed the growth to higher prices for recycled PET, as opposed to the lower prices extended to new PET materials.
