Plastic bottle recycling by consumers increases by 6.2% in 2012

11-Nov-13

Plastic bottle recycling by consumers increased 161 mln lbs in 2012, edging up 6.2%, to reach nearly 2.8 bln lbs for the year, according to figures released jointly today by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC). The recycling rate for all plastic bottles rose 1.6% to 30.5% for the year. During 2012, the collection of high-density polyethylene (HDPE, #2) bottles – a category that includes milk jugs and bottles for household cleaners and detergents – rose 45.3 mln lbs to top 1 bln lbs for the first time, helping to boost the recycling rate for HDPE bottles from 29.9 to 31.6%. "Thanks to increased consumer access to recycling programs and growth in single-stream collection – whereby consumers place all recycled materials into a single bin – plastics recycling is one of the easiest things we can do to benefit the planet," added Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council. In the United States, we have the capacity to recycle more used plastics than we are currently collecting, and innovative manufacturers are using these materials in new and exciting ways. Each of us can help by doing our part to get more used plastics into a recycling bin." This year's survey of plastic bottle recycling also found that the collection of polypropylene (PP, #5) bottles rose to nearly 47 mln lbs, an annual increase of 7.2%, with 73% of that material processed domestically as PP, rather than mixed with other resins. Domestic processing of postconsumer PP bottles increased 14% to reach 43.5 mln lbs. Although PP caps and non-bottle containers are widely collected for recycling in the United States, these data are released in a separate report on recycling non-bottle rigid plastics, which will be released in the coming weeks. Together, polyethylene terephthalate (PET, #1) and HDPE bottles continue to make up over 96% of the U.S. market for plastic bottles with polypropylene bottles comprising half of the remaining 4%. Exports of HDPE bottles rose 30 mln lbs to 201 mln lbs in 2012, while imports of postconsumer HDPE decreased by 35% to 33.1 mln lbs, which, combined with increased collection and exports, resulted in slightly lower purchases for U.S. reclamation plants. The survey of reclaimers in the study was conducted by Moore Recycling Associates, Inc.