Plastic bottle recycling increased 4.3 percent in 2013, and the recycling rate for plastic bottles rose 0.4 percent reaching 30.9 percent, according to the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) annual report.
Plastic bottle recycling grew to 2.9 billion pounds for the latest year, as specified by the report.
According to Washington-based associations, Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles collected for recycling continuously for last 24 years.
In 2013, the collection of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles was increased to 26 million pounds from the 1.05 billion pounds of previous year, with a flat recycling rate of 31.6 percent.
In addition, the report reveals that single-stream collection in plastic bottle recycling sector has boosted up in 2013.
Usage of plastic bottles in packaging applications is increasing but is neutralized by light-weighting smaller bottles.
Besides, lack of access to recycling away from home is still an obstruction in the further development of this sector. Reclaims are attaining greater value through added up sorting operations.
Domestic processing of post-consumer plastic bottles has got enhanced and exports of plastic bottle bales have dropped to 20.4 percent to 28.4 percent, hitting a lowest level in five years, concludes the report.
Sabeena Wahid
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