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PET Collection Rate for Recycling Reaches Highest Level Ever in 2021: NAPCOR Report

The rise in the U.S. PET collection rate for recycling, including for both PET bottles and thermoforms, points to a significant rebound in PET redemption after the roadblocks presented by the pandemic.

In its recycling report, NAPCOR documented the largest amount of post-consumer PET ever collected, with bottle collection in the U.S. exceeding 1.9 billion pounds for the first time.
In its recycling report, NAPCOR documented the largest amount of post-consumer PET ever collected, with bottle collection in the U.S. exceeding 1.9 billion pounds for the first time.

PET collection for recycling has reached a new high. That’s according to The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), which recently released its “2021 PET Recycling Report.” Among the first-time achievements documented in the report, NAPCOR shared that 2021 witnessed the largest amount of post-consumer PET ever collected, with bottle collection in the U.S. exceeding 1.9 billion pounds for the first time. This represents a 1.5% increase in the U.S. PET recycling rate to 28.6% up from 27.1% in 2020. In another first, in 2021, the amount of thermoforms collected in the U.S. and Canada reached its highest-ever number, at 142 million pounds.

Napcor“These rates mark two major milestones in the growth of PET awareness, appreciation, use and reuse. “The 2021 increase is a powerful indicator that pandemic-driven disruptions to recycling services are getting back on track,” says Laura Stewart, NAPCOR executive director. “It is also important to point out that the North American rate is over the 30% recycling threshold suggested by the Ellen McArthur Foundation. This is viewed by many industry pundits as the post-consumer benchmark for proving that recycling works in practice and scale across multiple regions representing at least 400 million inhabitants.”

“The rebound in the amount of PET bottles collected in 2021 is encouraging,” adds Tom Busard, NAPCOR chairman, chief polymers and recycling officer for Plastipak Packaging, Inc., and president of Clean Tech, Plastipak’s recycling affiliate. “PET recycling is working, but there is a need to see increased collection to meet both legislated and voluntary recycled content demands of the future.”

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