PET Recycling Rate Reaches 27%

Washington, DC, Oct. 26, 2009--The PET plastic recycling rate of hit 27% last year, according to the National Association for PET Container Resources and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers

This is the highest recycling rate in over 10 years, the associations said, and represents an increase of 9.8% over the 2007 rate of 24.6%.

Over 1.45 billion pounds of PET bottles were collected in U.S. in 2008, the highest PET container collection volume recorded to date.

The end-uses for a record 915 million pounds of recycled PET utilized in U.S. manufacturing applications, including fiber for carpet and apparel, strapping, sheet, film, food, beverage, and non-food bottles and containers.