
The U.S. plastics recycling sector was thrown off balance in late 2017 when China announced that it would ban imports of
Sunil Bagaria, president of GDB International Inc., New Brunswick, New Jersey, said he gave the Chinese authorities credit for National Sword. “Plastic scrap is such a big part of their manufacturing sector, but the government realized they were not doing the right thing,” he said. “No business is worth doing at the cost of the environment.”
Trade of plastic scrap from U.S. to China has been declining since 2014, Bagaria said, adding that that decline became “more precipitous after 2016.”
He described China’s ban as an “opportunity for our recycling industry in North America,” adding that it was “important to seize this opportunity.”
GDB International went from brokering plastic film scrap to reprocessing it domestically. The company makes PCR pellets from postindustrial and
Bagaria said that if plastic scrap is a valuable raw material for other counties, that is also the case for the U.S. “There is more money to be made by selling the pellets than by selling the scrap,” he continued, adding that investing in reprocessing capabilities will “pay off multiple times.”
He said that in some applications, postconsumer resin (PCR) is selling for more than 50 percent more than virgin plastics, which he described as “good news for our industry.”
However, film recycling is not without its challenges, Bagaria said, which includes labor costs to upgrade the feedstock, the small price differential relative to virgin material, scrap quality inconsistencies coupled with end users’ need for PCR quality and consistency and the considerable capital expenditure involved.
Bagaria said that more needed to be done to encourage extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the U.S. “Demand for PCR must increase voluntarily or legislatively,” he added.
“I’m not so sure this session shouldn’t have been called Life During National Sword,” said Keith Ristau, president
Far West recovers and sells 1,250 tons of plastics monthly: 330 tons of bottle-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), 530 tons of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), 90 tons of miscellaneous MRF-grade film, 130 tons of mixed
In addition to China’s ban on plastic scrap imports, Far West’s operations were affected by the city of Portland’s move to collect garbage every other week rather than weekly. Ristau said the amount of garbage in the recycling bin doubled in the first week following the move to less-frequent collections, with diaper contamination growing considerably.
To address the increase in contamination and China’s quality requirements for paper shipments, Far West had to slow down its sort line speed and add pickers, which increased to the company’s processing costs, he said.
As of March, Far West was selling its old corrugated containers (OCC) under domestic contracts and shipping only to China or Asia when it found itself with an oversupply of material.
The company’s mixed paper markets changed most considerably as a result of National Sword, Ristau said. Sixty percent of this material went to China before, and now it all stays within the domestic market.
Prior to National Sword, 90 percent of the company’s PET bales were PET bottles. Bottle content in its PET bales has increased to 98 percent because of the slower belt speeds, he said, and all that material is shipped domestically now. However, in January 2018, Oregon’s bottle deposit fee increased from 5 cents to 10 cents per bottle, and the volume of PET in curbside mix dropped by 35 percent, Ristau said.
The quality of Far West’s HDPE natural bales ranges from 95 percent to 98 percent. These bales were almost exclusively shipped to Asia before National Sword, he said, and now are shipped domestically. Fifty percent of its colored HDPE bales went to China before National Sword was introduced, but this material is now traded within North America.
Far West shipped its Nos. 1-7 bales to China prior to National Sword. While Ristau said the company experimented with removing No. 1, 2 and 5 for a time, it has gone back to producing Nos. 1-7 mixed bales, which are sent to a domestic secondary sorting facility or incinerated for energy.
Bulky
Despite film not being an approved recyclable for curbside collection, the company receives a good deal of this material. “We have a sustainable domestic market now,” Ristau said.
While he said he believed National Sword has had a positive influence on the recycling industry by forcing improved quality, he added that it has pushed markets to all-time lows for pricing.
Adina Renee Adler, senior director of international relations for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, said the U.S. exported 40.7 million metric tons of scrap commodities in 2018, which was 7 percent more than in 2017, despite the decrease in trade with China. She added that 10 new markets were added in last year, which helped to absorb some of the
Adler reminded attendees that scrap commodities are bought, not sold, which is why they move across borders.
She added, “Scrap never was a waste but a product that had value. Certain countries always have understood that.”
While Adler said the future of recycling will involve more processing where the material is generated, she added that scrap trade will continue. While U.S. plastic scrap exports decreased 35 percent through November of 2018, once China was removed, the decline was only 5 percent.
John Caturano, senior sustainability manager for Nestle Waters North America, Stamford, Connecticut, said, “Unless we steer away from
He added that rather than talking about the benefits of plastic, the industry is defending the material. “Plastic water bottles are not socially acceptable to young folks, and that scares me,” Caturano said, adding that more advocacy is needed for plastics.
China’s recycling rate is 65 percent some cities, but 91 percent of waste is mismanaged in rural areas, he said. National Sword “is about China fixing its own infrastructure.”
Caturano added, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to send material elsewhere if it can be used properly.”
The 2019 Plastics Recycling Conference was March 11-13 in National Harbor, Maryland.
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