U.S. Scrap Plastic Exports See Dramatic Decline

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest U.S. Census Bureau data suggests substantial decline in exports of scrap plastic by the country during the initial ten-month period this year. This is when compared with the corresponding period a year before. The imports of the material by the country too registered decline year-on-year.

The U.S. exports of plastic waste and scrap recorded year-on-year decline by approximately 39%. The exports were valued at $239.75 million through October this year, as compared with $392.36 million during the period from January to October in 2018. The yearly exports of the material had totalled $445.66 million in 2018.

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The top destination of exports was Canada. The exports to that country recorded marginal decline by almost 6% over the previous year to total $55.40 million. Canada accounted for just over 23% of all shipments of scrap plastic by the U.S until October this year. The second largest importer was India, whose imports totalled $31.64 million. In third place was Hong Kong with $24.85 million worth of imports from the U.S. The other key foreign markets were Mexico ($16.55 million) and Taiwan ($13.12 million). The above five top importers together accounted for nearly 59% of the total shipments of plastic scrap by the U.S. from January to October this year.

The U.S. imports of plastic waste, scrap decreased 6.12% through October 2019 to $190.65 million. The top sources of import were Mexico ($67.93 million), Canada ($41.94 million), Honduras ($11.60 million), Germany ($8.95 million) and Japan ($8.14 million).