CRI releases report on US container recycling rates and trends

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) has published a report that analyzes the US container recycling rates and trends over the ten-year period from 2000 to 2010.

According to the report, the overall beverage container recycling rate for 2010 was 36.9%, more or less unchanged with a slight improvement when compared with the rate of 39% in 2000. This is inclusive of all material types and all major beverage types. The container recycling rate for traditional material types alone stood higher at 39.6% in 2010. Aluminum beverage cans were recycled at the rate of 49.7%. The recycling rate for glass beverage bottles and PET beverage bottles stood at 36.9% and 29.1% respectively.

The recycling rates for traditional material types in US states that have active container deposit laws were almost double of that in non-deposit states. The recycling rates in deposit states ranged between 66% and 96%. However, the beverage container recycling rate in non-deposit states was 30% in 2010. Also, PET has a lower recycling rate than aluminum and glass in deposit states.

The CRI report suggests significant growth in sales of PET bottles. The PET bottle sales nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010. Also, sales of traditional bottles and cans grew by 22% during the ten-year period from 178 billion units in 2000 to 216 billion units in 2010. The sales of non-carbonated beverages grew, whereas soft drink sales dropped by 10%. Bottled water sales soared higher by over 400% from 8 billion units in 2000 to as high as 45 billion units in 2010.

The report notes that Americans landfilled, incinerated or littered almost two-thirds of beverage bottles and cans sold. 153 billion out of the 243 billion beverages and can containers were wasted in 2010. This is significantly up when compared with nearly 137 billion wasted in 2000.

Founded in 1991, the nonprofit Container Recycling Institute is a leading authority on the economic and environmental impacts of used beverage containers and other consumer-product packaging. Its mission is to make North America a global model for the collection and quality recycling of packaging materials.