Domestic Reclaimers Under Pressure
Alasdair Carmichael, NAPCOR’s Program Director, offered one of the most striking assessments of the market’s health in Packaging Dive’s January 2026 analysis. He noted that 2025 saw an unprecedented number of PET reclaimers close, with four facilities shutting down in a single year.
“There are only about 30 plants, and if you have four of them close in a year, that is a big chunk. I think that in itself tells us that the business is not good, and a lot of that business is not good because of increased imports.” – Alasdair Carmichael, NAPCOR Program Director, Packaging Dive.
Carmichael’s comments shine a spotlight on a critical industry trend: domestic PET recycling infrastructure is shrinking at a time when stable supply and processing capacity are needed most.
Why Imports Matter
The Packaging Dive piece highlights that volumes of imported post-consumer recycled resin have climbed steadily, with imports of PET and recycled PET continuing to rise in 2024 and 2025. These imports into the US market are often cheaper, and while they have helped meet demand, they have had a disproportionate negative impact on domestic producers, particularly for recycled feedstocks. While imported material can play a role in supply chains, a lack of transparency into origin and quality may also undermine domestic processors’ competitiveness.
Carmichael also noted another trend: international export capacity has grown, particularly in Asia, with new facilities meeting US and European food-contact standards, often designed primarily for export markets.
“Those are not requirements that are needed in their own countries, so it’s a very key indicator that export was a primary, if not the primary, part of the business plan.” – Alasdair Carmichael, NAPCOR Program Director, Packaging Dive.
Increased trade of recycled materials undermines circularity in both the exporting region as well as the destination, and undermines the sustainability benefits of recycling. For example, exporting recycled PET from Asia to the US means that circular PET feedstock is no longer available in the place where it was collected, resulting in continued reliance on virgin materials there. In the US, the imported material puts domestic recycled PET at a competitive disadvantage and displaces it, potentially resulting in collected PET being landfilled or entering the environment. Finally, the environmental savings associated with the use of recycled PET (such as a 59 percent lower carbon footprint for recycled PET produced in the US compared to virgin PET) are inevitably eroded by shipping over great distances, which is contrary to the inherent sustainability value in recycling PET.
