U.S. Scrap Plastic Exports Weakened Significantly

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest trade figures published by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates significant decline in exports of scrap plastic from the country.

In accordance with the data, scrap plastic exports from the U.S. totaled only 144 million pounds in November 2018. This is the lowest export volume in November since 2003. When matched with November 2017, the monthly exports reported huge decline by almost 43%. It must be noted that the U.S. scrap plastic shipments had totaled 251 million pounds in Nov ’17.

The largest export destination of scrap plastic from the U.S was Canada. The country imported 22.7 million pounds from the U.S., thereby accounting for nearly 16% of the total U.S. monthly exports. In second place was India and Hong Kong which imported 21.9 million pounds each. The other primary importing countries were China (12.0 million), Malaysia (10.1 million) and Indonesia (8.6 million).

Following Chinese decision to ban imports of foreign plastic waste into the country, the U.S. shipments to neighboring Canada and Southeast Asian countries have seen a dramatic rise. Incidentally, the U.S. was one among the biggest exporters of plastic waste to China until the imposition of the ban by Chinese authorities. Recently, many countries including Vietnam and Thailand had placed restrictions on plastic waste imports.

On the contrary, the shipments of recovered paper had reported considerable jump in November ’18. The country’s shipments of 1.9 million short tons were 16% higher than those in Nov ’17, trade figures said.