Recycled Resins Can Be a Bargain— If You Can Find Them

RECYCLED RESIN PRICES
	Pellets ¢/lb	Flake ¢/lb
PET Bottles (Clean)
Clear Post-Consumer	58-67	45-52
Green Post-Consumer	45-54	42-47
HDPE (Clean)
Natural Post-Consumer	32-34	30-35
Mixed Colors	26	26-29
Post-Industrial	43-48	39-44
Polystyrene
Post-Consumer
High Impact
Black	-	-
Natural	-	-
General Purpose
Black	28-31	29
Natural	53-54	37-43
Polypropylene
Post-Industrial	18-44	18-44
Post-Consumer	-	-
Polyethylene Film
Post-Industrial
LDPE	43	25-27
LLDPE
Clear	43	25-27
Mixed Color	27-35	25-27
PVC
Post-Industrial
Flexible	35-45	16-19
Rigid	40	12-15

With manufacturing demand in the doldrums, business is slow for recyclers; but the low prices could be good news for processors seeking a bargain. That is, if you can find recycled material at all.

Some types of recycled materials are scarce today, because prices are too low to interest vendors. Reprocessing in many sectors has simply stopped because of an inventory glut. These factors make it difficult to get an accurate fix on some prices. For example, one reseller advised that post-consumer HIPS prices should be taken with a grain of salt because there isn’t any available.

 

R-HDPE: ‘AG’ IS STRONG

Suppliers say prices have come up a bit since they took a dive in December and January. “HDPE went off a cliff in the Fall. The market lost anywhere from 30¢ to 33¢/lb in about two months. We were hoping for increases in February when virgin increases were announced, but that hasn’t happened yet. Price hikes of 3¢/lb for recycled HDPE in March are still a possibility,” one source said. The one bright spot for recyclers has been the agricultural sector, where HDPE demand reportedly has been “fairly decent.”

 

R-PET

Recycled PET prices were down but have started to inch up. The Chinese are buying again on the West Coast, and the R-PET market is holding its own in FDA applications for bottles and thermoformed packaging.

 

R-PP: NO POST-CONSUMER

One reseller said virgin off-spec PP dropped as low as 20¢/lb at the end of last year, “So can you imagine how much scrap was selling for. Was it even worth selling? Now, PP post-industrial colored pellets are selling for 18¢ to 20¢. Natural is going for high 30s to mid 40s. No post-consumer PP is even available.”