Page 41 - Plastics News February 2025
P. 41
BUSINESS NEWS
that language in the EPA report raises “ques- products in the U.S.”
tions about the accuracy of their new recycling
rate statistics.” Looking at plastics, NAPCOR and the Associa-
tion of Plastic Recyclers published a 2019 PET
“Facts and data matter, especially when it bottle recycling rate of 27.9% and a total HDPE
comes to measuring and tracking the success of bottle recycling rate of 30.9%.
paper recycling over time,” he said, adding that
“AF&PA has closely monitored paper recycling NAPCOR’s Director of Data Services Lauren Lai-
rates for decades.” bach said the rates differ due to differing meth-
odologies.
Past estimates
“Previously, the EPA relied on industry data to
However, looking at other reports that estimat- generate their annual ‘facts and figures,’ but this
ed 2019 recycling rates for specific materials, effort was discontinued,” she said. “The recent
there’s a wide spread between the numbers. EPA report states that they rely in large part on
Eunomia’s 2021 The 50 States of Recycling re-
The AF&PA estimated a cardboard recycling port, which emphasizes what Eunomia calls the
rate of 92% and a mixed paper recycling rate of “real” (net) recycling rate, instead of the collec-
66.2% in 2019, while a study from the National tion (gross) rate that is most commonly used to
Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated a pa- characterize and track recycling performance.”
per recycling rate of 38%.
Meanwhile, NAPCOR calculates both, Laibach
The EPA itself has not released an update to its said. In addition, Eunomia relies on data collect-
Facts and Figures report since 2020, which cov- ed and reported by individual states, rather than
ered 2018 data. In that report, it estimated a 68% nationwide industry data, and “waste character-
paper recycling rate for 2018.
ization studies are sometimes the only basis for
Fiber industry analysts from Bloomberg Intelli- arriving at individual state recycling rates.”
gence and Circular Ventures have also present- “Because recycling takes place through complex
ed different, lower OCC and paper recycling rate systems, and the point at which data is available
estimates.
affects measurement of recycling performance,”
AF&PA changed how it calculates recycling it can be complicated to arrive at a nationwide
rates last November, Webber added, “to reflect recycling rate, she added. Setting standards or
continuously evolving global economic, supply best practices to create consistency across ma-
chain, and trade flows.” terial reporting could help, Laibach noted, but
“this would require cooperation among many
The new rate is “what we believe is the most different stakeholders, and it could be tough to
thorough and fact-based U.S. recycling rate arrive at consensus given the complexity of the
possible with currently available data,” Webber issues.”
noted, which reflects AF&PA’s “commitment to
utilize the best data available to support indus- While the Glass Packaging Institute did not have
try investments and guide our efforts to recover numbers for 2019, it estimated a recycling rate
and recycle more paper and paper packaging of 31.3% for glass food and beverage packag-
February 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 41
