With Chinese New Year approaching in early February, buyers of secondary plastics in that country are stocking up in advance of holiday-related business closures. This activity is helping to boost demand for secondary materials as 2010 comes to a close and we welcome 2011.
According to a recycler and broker based in the Great Lakes region, buying is very strong as of mid-December, with orders coming from both Chinese and domestic consumers of recycled plastics. She notes that good quality materials are in high demand, but that lower quality materials are suffering in light of increasing transportation costs, especially where the export market is concerned.
Scrap generation also is increasing domestically as manufacturing slowly gains speed, she notes.
While the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) recycling rate posted a modest gain in 2009, it appears that the figure will need to improve further to meet escalating demand for recycled content by bottle manufacturers. Monrovia, Calif.-based Naked Juice is among the companies looking to increase the amount of recycled PET (rPET) used in its bottles. The company says it began in 2009 by transitioning its 32-ounce bottles from using virgin PET to 100 percent post-consumer rPET. By the end of 2011, Naked Juice says it will transition all of its bottles to rPET, with the exception of its 128-ounce bottle, which is made from HDPE (high-density polyethylene). The transition will bring the company considerable cost savings, according to published reports.
Naked Juice has partnered with New York-based Recycle-
Bank to introduce a “Learn and Earn” program that gives RecycleBank participants the opportunity to earn 30 points for learning about PET recycling in the hopes that it will help to increase PET diversion.
Plastic bag manufacturers also are looking to increase recycled content in their products. The Progressive Bag Affiliates (PBA), a division of the American Chemistry Council, launched “The Full Circle Recycling Initiative” in 2009, establishing the goal of 40 percent recycled content in new plastic bags by 2015. According to PBA, the effort will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 463 million pounds, conserve enough energy to heat 200,000 homes and reduce waste by 300 million pounds per year.
“Plastic bag makers have listened to policy makers and customers and are launching an initiative that will make a lasting positive impact on American communities,” President and CEO of the American Chemistry CounciCal Dooley said at the time of the announcement. The effort is in response to regulations that ban grocery stores and other retailers from offering single-use plastic bags to their customers.
In 2008, the last year for which information is available, an estimated 832 million pounds of post-consumer film (including plastic bags) were recovered, according to the “2008 National Postconsumer Recycled Plastic Bag and Film Report” by Moore Recycling Associates Inc. of Sonoma, Calif., for the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council.
“Stretch film, collected as commercial film and as a part of mixed film, represents a significant majority of post-consumer recovered film, while agricultural film represents a small amount at approximately 3 percent. Plastic grocery and retail bags make up approximately 17 percent of the total post-consumer film recovered in 2008,” the report notes.
While the amount of curbside film sold into the market in 2008 increased compared with the amount sold in 2007, at least 90 percent of it was sold to the export market.
Plastic bag collection programs at retail locations can be found in every state, the report notes, and allow for the recovery of grocery, newspaper, produce and bread bags in addition to other plastic films.
However, any momentum toward more bag bans may threaten the goals of the industry going forward.
(Additional information about secondary plastics, including breaking news and consuming industry reports, is available at www.RecyclingToday.com.)