Articles and news on plastic waste and recycling seem to be prevalent in 2018 and this will probably continue in 2019. A recent article from Reuters noted that the European Union are passing regulations on minimizing marine litter. Several consumer brands are looking at increasing their use of recycled packaging as well as minimizing the use of plastic packaging as part of their sustainability initiatives.

A recently released report by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) noted plastic bottle recycling declined by 3.6% to 2.8 billion pounds in 2017. Overall recycling rate for plastic bottles for the year was 29.3%, down 0.4 percentage points from 29.7% in 2016. The five-year compounded annual growth rate for plastic bottle recycling was 0.1%.

Factors that contributed to the decline included changing export markets and a 3.6% drop in material collected for recycling. Ongoing increases in single-stream collection also led to increased contamination of recyclables. Growth in the use of plastic in bottles was offset by continuing progress in lightweighting and increased use of concentrates with smaller, lighter bottles.

In 2017, PET #1 bottles collected for recycling decreased by 27 million pounds. The collection of HDPE #2 bottles, which includes bottles for milk, household cleaners, and detergents, fell by 70.3 million pounds (6.3%) to just over 1.0 billion pounds for the year. The recycling rate for HDPE bottles slipped from 33.4% to 31.1%.

Exports of HDPE bottles fell nearly 28% from 193 million pounds to 140 million pounds or 13.4% of total HDPE bottles collected in 2017. The processing of recycled HDPE sourced domestically and imported fell by 31 million pounds in 2017.

This year’s survey found the collection of polypropylene (PP, #5) bottles fell 15.2% to 31.1 million pounds, as the PP collection rate dropped to 17.2%.

Together, PET and HDPE bottles make up 97% of the U.S. market for plastic bottles with PP comprising 1.9%, LDPE 0.7%, and PVC 0.3%. Together, PET and HDPE comprise 98.8% of bottles recycled with PP comprising 1.1%.

Let us see if 2019 will see a reversal in plastic recycling figures. In the meantime, we are also hoping to see more initiatives and measures in the use of biodegradable and/or compostable plastic packaging, especially for single-use materials.

The Green Blogger wishes everyone a prosperous 2019!