Plastic bottle recycling grew 120 million pounds in 2013, edging up 4.3%, to top 2.9 billion pounds for the year, according to figures released jointly by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR, plasticsrecycling.org) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC, americanchemistry.com). The recycling rate for plastic bottles climbed 0.4% to 30.9% for the year.
The 24th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report marks the twenty-fourth consecutive year that Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles returned for recycling. The pounds of used bottles collected for recycling in the United States has grown each year since the industry survey began in 1990.