Demand for Recycled PET Sparks New Investment Strategies in Collections and Processing

NAPCOR’s Q&A with Waste360

Recently, NAPCOR’s Program Director Alasdair Carmichael and Director of Data Services Lauren Laibach sat down with Waste360 for a wide-ranging interview. Using the NAPCOR’s 2023 PET Recycling Report as the cornerstone of the conversation, NAPCOR and Waste360 discussed what the report’s findings really mean, shifts in end markets, how to improve PET recycling rates, investment strategy changes to improve PET recycling infrastructure, and much more. Below is a teaser of the Q&A, which was published on March 6:

The PET recycling industry is seeing record-high recycling rates and increased demand for recycled PET (rPET), driven by corporate commitments and legislative mandates, but meeting future goals will require significant investments in collection and processing infrastructure. Companies like Republic Services are pioneering integrated recycling projects, while the industry pushes for better collection systems and advancements in PET recycling technology to support a more circular economy.

Companies and governments are reaching for aggressive PET recycling goals, but getting there will require a huge and rapid ramp up of collection and processing capacity. In this Waste360 Q&A, Alasdair Carmichael, program director for the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), discusses changes starting to happen in investment strategies to beef up infrastructure—including newly announced projects spearheaded by Republic Services that Carmichael says are the first of their kind for a waste company.And NAPCOR Director of Data Services Lauren Laibach illuminates on new recycled PET records set in 2023.

Click here to read the full Q&A on Waste360.