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Plastic Recycling March 21, 2019 04:30:31 PM

U.S. Plastic Scrap Exports Dropped 35% in 2018

Paul Ploumis
ScrapMonster Author
By weight, the primary importer of U.S. plastic scrap was Malaysia.

U.S. Plastic Scrap Exports Dropped 35% in 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The shipment of scrap plastic by U.S. exporters dropped significantly during the previous year. The latest statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the scrap plastic shipments from the country totaled around 2.4 billion pounds in 2018, which is lower by 35% when compared with the year before. The shipment volumes to China registered notable decline. This led to scrap plastic shipments being re-routed to alternative Asian destinations.

China, which accounted for 33.4% of the total U.S. scrap plastic shipments in 2017, dropped its share to just 4.5% in 2018. The shipments to Hong Kong too witnessed huge decline, with the country’s market share dropping from 22.4% in 2017 to 11.3% in 2018.

The drop in purchases of U.S. plastics by major importing nations was offset by sudden jump in receipts by other countries such as Malaysia, which recorded dramatic jump in the share of U.S. plastic exports from 7.3% to 18.8%. These countries recorded substantial jump in import volumes during the initial half of 2018. However, the policy changes to restrict imports have resulted in reduced intake during the remainder of the year.

By weight, the primary importer of U.S. plastic scrap was Malaysia. The country’s imports more than doubled to total 443 million pounds in 2018. The other major importers were Canada (294 million pounds), India (294 million pounds), Hong Kong (267 million pounds), Thailand (235 million pounds) and Vietnam (165 million pounds).

This story originally appeared in www.resource-recycling.com

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