The coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on the food & beverage industry’s efforts to use more recycled plastic, especially for water and other beverage bottles.
Companies that want to make or use recycled plastic for bottles are getting pressured from several factors related to the pandemic, according to the Wall Street Journal. A decrease in travel has depressed the price of oil to the point where virgin plastic, made from petroleum, is cheaper than ever compared with recycled. In the U.S., the price premium for food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) over virgin rose from 7% last year to 22%; in Europe, from 35% to 95%.
In addition, the pandemic has put a crimp in municipal curbside recycling programs and has led nine states (of 10 total) to suspend requirements for retailers to accept and pay deposits on empty bottles, both prime sources of food-grade rPET.
As a result, major companies like Coca-Cola and Danone have had to delay or miss previously announced targets for recycled content in their products. The situation has hit water bottlers especially hard, since using recycled material is important for them to counter allegations that their packaging is wasteful.