This is due to significant increases in recycling and the use of less plastic in single-serve PET bottled water containers.
According to NAPCOR, now at almost 39%, the recycling rate for single-serve PET plastic bottled water containers has more than doubled in the last seven years.
BMC found that over the last 11 years the average weight of a 16.9oz (half-litre) single-serve PET plastic bottled water container has dropped by almost 47.8%, to 9.9g.
According to a January 2013 internal NAPCOR study, the national recycling rate for PET plastic bottled water containers jumped dramatically in 2011 to 38.6+%, representing an increase of nearly 20% over the previous year’s rate of 32.25%.
In its study, NAPCOR states that in 2011 (the most recent available data) there were approximately 1.3 billion pounds of PET plastic water bottle containers available for recycling in the US, of which 500 million pounds was reclaimed for recycling.
PET plastic bottled water containers are the most frequently recycled PET beverage container in curbside recycling programmes.
Source: IBWA
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