These are the latest statistics on non-bottles rigid and film recycling

Film Recovery

The first annual report made American Chemistry Council (ACC) on post-consumer bags and film showed that the amount of film that resorted to U.S. and Canadian reclaimers was having a growth of 10 percent from 2017 and the absolute amount of it was 695 million pounds. In contrast to this, the amount that was exported out was 19% less than the amount of 2017 and the value was 307 million pounds.

The total number of plastic film that was recovered also decreased by one billion pounds giving a deficit of 0.5% over 2017.

Non-Bottle Rigid

The second report that was made by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) based on non-bottle rigid plastics. According to the report, More Recycling researchers found that the recovered non-bottle rigid plastics for recycling was showing a negative path as it decreased by 3% from 2017. The total number collected was 1.3 billion pounds. Out of the respective amount, 1.1 billion pounds were shipped to the US and Canada. Which was 4% higher than last year (2017). Only 174 million pounds were exported out to be recycled which was 35% less than in 2017.

From the year 2017 to 2018 the recovery of non-bottle rigid plastic went down by 46.6 million pounds. The export of non-bottle rigid plastic decreased by 92.9 million pounds. In contrast, the domestic purchasing of plastic shows growth and it increased by 46.3 million pounds. The buyers inside the US also purchased more source-separated commercial commodities and mixed resin rigid bales.

In conclusion, over 90% of all collected post-consumer plastic bottles were processed in the United States in 2018. This shows a prominent change from past trends. Only 7.7 % of the plastic that was collected in the US recycled outside the country, continuing the declining trend of post consumer plastic export. Exports remained quite stable in 2018 over 2017, representing 13.9% of the domestically collected material, with approximately 44% of that total leaving the US.

This study is a collaborative work between the Plastics Department of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), the aim of which is to quantify the number of bottles collected for recycling, as well as the rate of recycling of those bottles.

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