Import rPET Soars! North America's Recycling and Consumption Decline

According to the latest PET recycling report released by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), the import of recycled PET (RPET) in North America reached a historic high in 2024, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total supply.

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U.S. Market Data

The 30th annual report from the U.S. PET Container Resources Association shows that the total consumption of RPET in the U.S. and Canada decreased by 3% in 2023, reaching 1.733 billion pounds, indicating a weakening overall demand. Meanwhile, domestic sales of recyclers in the U.S. fell by 7%, while imported RPET grew by 14%, reaching 395 million pounds.

The report indicates that there is a significant price gap between domestic RPET and virgin PET in the United States, which encourages manufacturers to prefer using virgin PET or lower-priced imported RPET. This dynamic echoes the situation that led to the bankruptcy of several recyclers in the European Union and the closure of the rPlanet Earth company in California.

In addition, weak end-user demand has put pressure on the PET industry. Companies such as Eastman and INEOS recently stated that they expect the suppressed demand to be released by 2026.

In 2024, the recycling rate of PET bottles in the United States fell to 30.2%, a decrease of 2.3 percentage points from the 2023 peak of 32.5%. NAPCOR pointed out that the data for 2023 has been updated since its release at the end of last year. However, the average recycling rate has remained around 30% from 2014 to 2024.

The total amount of PET bottles recycled in the United States decreased by 3.9% to 1.889 billion pounds. In 2023, this figure was 1.965 billion pounds, marking the highest annual total on record. Of the recycled PET bottles, 88% were processed by U.S. recyclers, an increase of 1 percentage point compared to the previous year. U.S. recyclers supplemented domestic bottle chip sources by importing materials and using alternative feedstocks, processing a total of 1.966 billion pounds of PET, a 1.5% increase from 2023.

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The total amount of recyclable PET bottles is increasing.

According to the report, the total amount of recyclable PET bottles available in the United States reached 6.248 billion pounds, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year. However, due to the increase in virgin resin input, the average usage ratio of RPET in U.S. PET bottles remained stable at 15.9%. Even so, the sales of RPET used for food and beverage bottles declined for the first time since 2018, although the usage ratio of RPET in bottle applications reached a new high of 62%.

The report indicates that although the recycled content in PET bottles in the United States has been on the rise in recent years, the change in 2024 is due to weak demand for bottle-grade RPET nationwide, while the growth in the total supply of recyclable bottles is primarily driven by an increase in the input of virgin resin.

The sales of virgin PET for food and beverage bottle applications have also increased, while the sales of virgin PET for personal care and other non-food applications continue to decline.

Laura Stewart, Executive Director of NAPCOR, stated, "These results underscore the necessity of continued investment in recycling infrastructure and policies that aim to strengthen the domestic supply of raw materials, support innovation, and ensure that PET remains a leading material in the circular economy."

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Increased recycling volume of non-bottle materials; market lagging.

Despite the decline in bottle recycling volumes, the recycling volumes of other categories of PET and their share of the total have significantly increased. Driven by the first large-scale application of depolymerization technology (such as Eastman's methanolysis plant in Kingsport, Tennessee, which is set to increase operational rates in 2024), the amount of non-traditional feedstock (non-consumer packaging materials, including byproducts of the recycling process) processed by recyclers in the United States and Canada is almost four times that of 2023.

Overall, the United States and Canada recycled 264 million pounds of PET thermoformed products in 2024, representing a significant year-over-year increase of 52%.

NAPCOR attributes this growth to advancements in the recycling of non-bottle packaging, including improvements in artificial intelligence and optical sorting technology, as well as a broader acceptance of these materials as feedstock (for example, Eastman has expanded its feedstock range). It also acknowledges adjustments in reporting methods. "Overall, these factors reflect a more accurate measurement of the thermoformed products component in the recycling stream, and the actual growth may be more gradual than the data suggests."

Despite the significant increase in the recycling volume of alternative PET materials, the report points out that the market demand for post-consumer PET thermoformed products lags behind the rise in recycling rates, describing this situation as "mismatched."

Tom Busard, Chairman of the NAPCOR Board, Chief Polymer and Recycling Officer at Plastipak Packaging, and President of its recycling subsidiary Clean Tech, stated, "These data highlight the importance of strengthening domestic recycling infrastructure in the U.S., expanding the recycling of all forms of PET packaging, and ensuring policy support for reliable end markets for recycled materials."