Plastic Bottle Waste Dramatically Exceeds Recycling in 2000

Container and Packaging Recycling UPDATE Summer/Fall 2001

WASHINGTON, DC - Plastic bottle recycling increased by only 2 million pounds last year, while resin sales increased by 80 million pounds. The net result is that plastic bottle waste in

creased by 78 million pounds, based on data from the American Plastics Council (APC) in its annual report on postconsumer plastics recycling.

The PET plastic bottle recycling rate declined again last year, dropping to an 11year low of 22 percent. The five-year decline persisted despite the continued growth in curbside recycling. The HDPE bottle recycling rate was flat at 23.8 percent.

APC data shows that PET and HDPE account for 99 percent of plastic bottles recycled in the United States last year.

When APC adds additional types of plastic bottles made from PVC, LDPE/ LLDPE, PP and PS, the overall plastic bottle recycling rate was 21.8 percent.

"When nearly 80 percent of plastic bottles are thrown away rather than recycled, the news really isn't good no matter how the trade associations try to spin the story," CRI Senior Policy Analyst Lance King said after reviewing newly released data from APC and NAPCOR.

"While APC is eager to boast that 1,511 million pounds of plastic bottles were collected for recycling last year they aren't bragging about the growing waste problem," said King.

Read closely and one finds that plastic resin sales increased by 80 million pounds, bringing total resin sales to 6,915 million pounds in 2000. In other words, resin sales for plastic bottles increased 40 times more than plastic recycling.

Probe a little deeper and the picture looks worse. While APC reports pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling, industry sources have long acknowledged that roughly 20 percent of the plastic bottles collected for recycling are rejected due to contamination or material loss in the recycling process. In fact, NAPCOR, the PET bottle trade association publishes both a utilization rate and a recycling rate each year. In 2000 NAPCOR put the recycling rate at 22.3 percent and the utilization rate at 18.0 percent.

"Plastics are clearly the fastest growing packaging material. Even though there has been progress in building the collection infrastructure in the past decade, it's very expensive to collect plastic bottles through curbside programs," King said.

The biggest increase in PET plastic bottle recycling last year was in California, through the expanded bottle bill program. Preparing the annual analysis of plastic container recycling rates, the California Integrated Waste Management Board staff concluded that without the expanded deposit system the rates would have dropped further.

California collected 42 percent more PET bottles through the deposit system in 2000 compared to 1999. That was really the only bright spot and it kept the national PET plastic bottle recycling rates from sliding down even further.

The situation in California is likely to improve this year, because all the new types of beverages in the deposit system must be labeled as having Container Refund Value (CRV) as of January 2001 and the state is conducting a two-year, $10 million consumer education campaign to boost recycling.