Recycling growth `in double figures'
15 Jan 2000
Demand for recycled plastics in the US is set to rise by 10 per cent per year until the end of the decade, according to market researchers at the Freedonia Group. Total demand will reach 2.8 billion pounds, worth some $1.3billion, it forecasts in a new report.
Ease of sorting and separation and convenient end-uses are the keys to which plastics will succeed in the recycling field, says Freedonia. Demand for high-density polyethylene, which can be recycled into bottles and films, will almost reach 10 per cent/a from its 1995 base of 600million pounds. The winner, however, will be the polyester resin polyethylene terephthalate, which can be made into fibres for use in carpets and filling for quilted jackets and furniture. Because fibres need less processing than resins, demand for PET will exceed 11 per cent/a from its 525million pounds base in 1995.
Packaging will remain as both the main source and market for recyclable resins, creating a `highly desirable closed loop recycling.' Advanced cleaning and depolymerisation technologies make it possible to recycle used bottle, for example, into a food-grade film. Engineering resins, such as nylon and polycarbonates, are difficult to recycle, so these markets will lag those for PE and PET, it concludes.
