The latest report by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) has revealed that the US recorded a recycling rate of 31.2% for PET bottles last year.
This is an increase of 30.8% in 2012 and a new record for the US PET market.
According to the report titled, 'Report on Postconsumer PET Container Recycling Activity in 2013,' communities in the US collected the maximum number of PET bottles in 2013, ranging around 1,798 million pounds.
Despite of decrease in the sales of certain beverage markets, total amount of PET used in the production of US bottles was also higher at 5,764 million pounds. These bottles included 475 million pounds of recycled PET content.
NAPCOR chairman, chief procurement officer for Plastipak Packaging and president of Clean Tech, Plastipak's recycling affiliate Tom Busard said: "Demand for recycled PET continues to grow, with domestic use in bottles, polyester fiber and other applications increasing year-over-year.
"Limited recycled PET supply is still a barrier to growth, but PET reclaimers really boosted their operations in 2013, easily absorbing the increase in bottles collected, and pulling back material that had been exported in previous years."
There was a 24% increase in the clean PET flake production by domestic PET reclaimers from US bottles which reached around 974 million pounds.
The amount of recycled PET used across domestic end-use market segments also increased to 1,513 million pounds from 1,312 million pounds in 2012. PET bottle and fiber end uses saw significant gains.
It was also noted that there was a continued decrease in export volumes, which represented only 26% of total collection volumes in 2013, the lowest volume since 2004 and the lowest by percentage of total collection since 2000.
Image: US set a record by recycling 31.2% PET bottles.
