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Package Recycling Stats by the Numbers
How far have we come in the last 10 years and where do we go from here?
6 Min Read
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Without a doubt, sustainability continues to be a top issue influencing the growth and progress of the packaging industry. In 2015, Packaging Digest Executive Editor Lisa McTigue Pierce sized up how major packaging material categories were being impacted by recycling. With so much attention given to sustainability these days, surely we’ve made some progress on those recycling numbers, right?
With November 15 dubbed America Recycles Day, we thought, “What better time than now to check our progress?”
While the EPA hasn’t issued updated numbers since its 2020 report on 2018 data, The Recycling Partnership, a leading recycling and circular economy group, says that, although consumers are increasingly tuned into the importance of recycling, actions continue to speak louder than words. According to its 2024 State of Recycling report, only 21% of recyclable material is captured in the US, with 76% of recyclables lost at the household level, and only 43% of households actively participate in recycling efforts.
On the bright side, the report spotlights how Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies are helpful in closing gaps by driving recycling improvements and engagement. The group additionally challenges private industry to make continued investments in packaging designs that encourage recyclability to help improve material circularity, access to recycling, and recycling collection rates nationwide.
Where are we today with recycling different packaging materials? Let’s explore current stats.
Click here to see an infographic that charts the recycling rates for eight common packaging materials, then and now.
PLASTIC & RIGID PACKAGING
A total of about 5 billion pounds of bottle, non-bottle rigid plastics, film, and other plastics (excluding foam) was recovered in 2022, according to Circularity in Action’s 2022 US Post Consumer Plastic Recycling Data Dashboard.
Bottles continued to make up the majority of the post-consumer plastic recovered for recycling at 55.5%, down from 56.8% in 2021. Non-bottle rigids accounted for roughly 22% each. US-sourced post-consumer bottles recovered for recycling in the US totaled 2.7 billion pounds (down by 107 million pounds) with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles making up the majority of these bottle materials. US-sourced post-consumer non-bottle rigid plastic recovered for recycling increased by 40.8 million pounds to 1.1 billion pounds, with HDPE and polypropylene (PP) combining to represent about 73% of the material recovered for recycling.
New consumer perception research published by the American Chemistry Council confirms that advanced recycling is a widely supported approach to help recycle more plastics in the US. The research polled Americans on recycling and environmental marketing claims relevant to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) planned revisions to its Green Guides and showed consumers are supportive of different processes used to recycle post-use plastics — both mechanical and advanced recycling are viewed as equally acceptable processes in the need to increase plastic recycling rates and reduce waste.
GLASS
Glass may be continually recyclable, however, barriers for cost-effective recycling remain a hinderance in the US.
The most recent statistics from 2018 from the Glass Packaging Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indicate that the US glass recycling rate is about 31% (less than half of Europe’s rate). What’s behind the lag? A major culprit is the high temperatures required to smelt and refine glass require a significant amount of energy and energy costs can be substantially challenging in the US.
The 2023 Impact Report from the Glass Recycling Foundation (GRF) found that glass containers account for 12.3 metric tons of glass generated each year. Of that, 9.2 metric tons goes to landfills and 3.1 metric tons is recycled for use as new containers, fiberglass, construction materials, and abrasive mediums.
METAL
Also continually recyclable, aluminum beverage cans and steel cans reign as the most recycled beverage and food containers in the US, boasting 45% and 58% recycling rates, respectively.
The Can Manufacturers Institute reports that the beverage can’s existing circular system recycles nearly 46.7 billion cans each year in the United States — that equates to more than 5.4 million cans each hour and the average US aluminum beverage can being comprised of 73% recycled content. Aluminum is the most valuable material in the recycling stream, bearing a value of $991 per ton (by comparison, PET is worth about $205 per ton).
Statistics from the Canned Food Alliance indicate that Americans use 100 million steel cans every day and more than 67 million steel cans are recycled daily. In fact, each year, more than 80% of the steel the domestic industry produces is recycled.
FLEXIBLE PACKAGING
Tallying $41.5 billion in US sales in 2022, flexible packaging ranks as the second largest packaging segment in the US, accounting for about 21% of the US packaging market by dollar volume. The Association of Plastic Recyclers reported that 1.1 billion pounds of film accounted for 22.1% of the total five billion pounds of postconsumer plastic for recycling in 2022.
And while it’s an exciting lightweight packaging option, it presents a unique set of problems to the US recycling stream, which prompted The Recycling Partnership to launch the Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition in 2020.
The issues at hand? Beyond the reality of limited end markets, less than 2% of Americans can put film and flexible packaging in their curbside recycling containers. That confusion surrounding proper disposal is leading to it landing in a recycling stream that isn’t currently equipped to handle it.
PAPER
In 2022, nearly 68% of paper was recycled, including 93.6% of corrugated board (OCC or “old corrugated containers”). [UPDATE 11-15-24: American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) just released the 2023 rates today, with the new paper recycling rate being 65%-69% and corrugated board being 71%-76%.]
What’s more, The Paper Recycling Coalition asserts that the paper industry recycles about 50 million tons of recovered paper every year — totaling more than 1 billion tons over the past 20 years.
The group also expects that between 2019 and 2025, the recycled paper sector is expected to deploy another $7 billion in manufacturing investments that will use more than 9 million tons of recovered fiber. But whether it’s enough remains to be seen given the American consumer’s ever increasing penchant for ecommerce.
As ecommerce habits evolve and package deliveries climb, US paper and corrugated board recycling is struggling to keep up. Out of the 110 million tons of paper and OCC waste managed in 2019, 62 million tons (56%) ended up in landfills, according to a 2023 study from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
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