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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-



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