New Editorial Reflects Growing Focus on the Realities Facing PET Recycling
A recent editorial in Plastics News highlights a conversation that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore across the packaging and recycling value chain: the long-term success of PET plastic circularity depends not only on sustainability goals, but also on the economic and policy systems needed to support them.
The editorial, “PET turmoil exposes the gap between recycling goals and market reality,” recognized the work of both NAPCOR and the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) in elevating conversations around the economic and infrastructure challenges facing PET recycling and the need for stronger domestic circularity systems.
The piece points to mounting pressures facing the US PET recycling system, including domestic recycling facility closures, stagnant collection rates, volatile global markets, and increasing competition from imported material. It also reflects a broader shift in the industry conversation.
For years, discussions around plastics recycling often focused primarily on aspirational targets and sustainability commitments. Those goals remain important. But today, more stakeholders across the value chain are acknowledging that circularity also depends on practical realities: stable end markets, reliable feedstock supply, domestic processing capacity, and policies that support long-term investment.
As Don Loepp noted in his editorial, the United States has lost significant PET recycling capacity over the past year, while PET collection rates have remained relatively flat nationally. At the same time, demand expectations for recycled content continue to rise, driven by both corporate commitments and state policy requirements. That tension is increasingly bringing attention to a central challenge: circularity goals cannot succeed without systems capable of supporting them.
The editorial also highlights the importance of improving collection. States with deposit return systems consistently achieve higher PET collection rates than the national average, while broader policy discussions around extended producer responsibility (EPR), infrastructure investment, and recycling system harmonization continue gaining momentum across the country.
NAPCOR has consistently emphasized that strengthening PET circularity requires:
- Increasing PET collection,
- Supporting domestic recycling infrastructure and stable end markets,
- Advancing practical and effective policy solutions, and
- Ensuring recycling systems remain economically sustainable over the long term.
Earlier this month, NAPCOR members participated in meetings on Capitol Hill and a Congressional Recycling Caucus briefing focused on the current state of PET recycling and the opportunities and challenges facing domestic recycling systems.
As conversations around recycling, manufacturing resilience, and supply-chain security continue to evolve, growing attention to these issues underscores an important reality: circularity depends on practical, economically sustainable systems that perform under real-world market conditions. NAPCOR remains committed to advancing data-driven solutions that strengthen PET recycling and support a more circular economy.
Read the full Plastics News editorial here.
