Recycled Polyester's Place in a Circular Economy

Food companies and consumer brand owners favor PET as a primary material for food and beverage packaging because it has value on a cost/performance basis. Brand owners are increasingly making announcements about their commitment to using recycled PET now and in the future, and a shortage of clean food-grade recycled PET is developing.

The combination of low PET bale prices and low value for paper, glass, and comingled plastics caused by Chinese import policy is disrupting US recycling markets and profitability. Recycling facilities have consolidated and there is a decrease in throughputs at materials recovery facilities. China used to import approximately 250kt. of PET from bottles per month, but this has now virtually stopped. Some countries in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia) are now importing but this is comparatively small compared to what China was importing. In addition, these countries are also imposing measures to block, or even return, imported plastic waste.

Consolidation in the PET industry led to plant shutdowns and the delay of new capacity, leading to an initial tightening of PET supply. US recyclers have increased the quantity of PET bales by importing millions of pounds from Canada and Mexico. A joint venture, (Corpus Christi Polymers LLC) between Indorama Ventures, DAK (Alpek) and FENC (Far Eastern New Century) was announced in 2018 and is expected to be operational by 2020. This venture will ensure long term low-cost virgin supply well into the future, with a new state-of-the-art facility. Major PET producers are developing alliances or joint ventures to supply recycled PET in a single-bag solution – this is where virgin and recycled materials are pre-blended. The recent acquisition by FENC of Phoenix Technologies and two other production sites within 18 months, and the announcement by Indorama Ventures that they will invest over USD 1bn in PET recycling, demonstrate the critical need for high-quality rPET.

With the continued long-term competitive pressures holding down the prices of virgin PET, one would imagine that virgin consumption would outpace any growth of rPET. However, this is not the case, as consumer, investor and regulatory pressures are forcing companies to switch to more sustainable packaging. They are betting on a continued trend towards the use of recycled materials and sustainable packaging.

PET is already one of the most widely recycled packaging materials in North America. It is popular because PET beverage bottles are easy to recognize in waste streams and provide for a relatively clean source of waste. Current US gross recycling rates of beverage bottles remain around 29%. (Total US bottles collected and sold for recycling is 1,726m pounds, which, divided by the total of US bottles available for recycling, at 5,913m pounds, makes 29.2%.)

As shown in the chart below, North American recycling rates are well-below those in Europe. If anything, US rates for recycled PET have been slightly decreasing over the past few years.

A major problem is the availability of clean food-grade PET to be recycled. There’s a lack of standardization in the way bottles are collected and there are great differences in the quality of PET from curbside collection states vs. other sources. This drives the need for chemical recycling, which has an advantage in being able to process PET from textiles, such as clothing and fibers, which have dyes, additives, and other contaminants.

Another concern for the North American market is the lack of new investment for infrastructure at the Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). MRFs are not keeping up with current capacity needs nor emerging technological advances. Other trends, such as the shift away from carbonated soft drinks (CSD) towards still water, contribute to the decrease in availability of PET to be recycled – still water bottles weigh significantly less than CSD bottles. The decrease in bottle weights has also led to problems in the separation of materials at the MRFs, as lightweight bottles get mixed with paper and smaller objects.

PET is recycled primarily via mechanical processing. Upcoming technologies such as chemical recycling of plastics would enable contaminated and mixed-color steams to be recycled back into virgin polymer, albeit at a cost premium. Today, chemical recycling is still in its infancy stage, but is being scaled-up to confirm process economics and viability.

Many industry parties believe that a mix of mechanical and chemical recycling will be the future model. However, the economics need to be proven first.

If we are going to solve many of the critical issues in the supply chain for PET in the US, all the parties in the chain need to change the way they operate. Regulators need to standardize collection practices to improve the quality of incoming materials and thus the quantity that can be recycled. Major brand owners are increasingly taking ownership by re-designing products with sustainability in mind. This will also enable higher rates of recycling. For example, a package should promote sustainability by not only making the packaging itself recyclable, but also designing labels, adhesives, and closures which can easily be recycled. Brand owners would benefit from lobbying for infrastructure which would enable clean PET to be collected, sorted and reprocessed. This may include support for bottle deposits and other incentive programs to get quality bottles back into the recycle stream.