The Future of Plastics Recycling is at Risk: THERE IS A SOLUTION
This guest blog was originally posted on the Association of Plastic Recyclers' (APR) website, and was written by Ali Briggs-Ungerer.
In 2017 there was a perfect storm for the plastics recycling industry in the United States.
With China's National Sword policy, U.S. recyclers suddenly lost a market for 65% of curbside-collected polypropylene, including nearly all bulky rigids. At the same time, a tsunami of virgin resin hit the marketplace, with over 50 million pounds (260 railcars) per month of new wide‐spec virgin resin competing directly with post-consumer recycled resin (PCR). Lastly, a lack of long-term contracts for reclaimers resulted in overnight evaporation of sales. For example, one major US plastic recycler noted their "standing order for 20 trailer loads of PCR/month was canceled last week because the converter switched to wide-spec virgin resin."
APR recognizes that consistent, reliable demand is critical for plastics recycling to be mature, vibrant and sustainable, and that…