Breaking the ‘boom-and-bust cycle’ in domestic recycled plastic markets

Ensuring PCR use in more challenging packaging like food-grade pouches can be “way down the road,” said APR Chief Policy Officer Kate Bailey. For now, there’s plenty to do with secondary products and bolstering good policy.

What happened

The flow of recycled content from recyclers to new packaging or products is never simple, yet in some ways 2026 feels especially complicated.

In the last year or so, seven out of 30 major PET recycling facilities in the U.S. closed, wiping out 25% of domestic capacity. At the same time, in just the last few months the Iran war’s impact on oil prices has driven up the price of different virgin resin grades internationally. And all the while, new extended producer responsibility laws are still on the horizon, some of which have recycled content stipulations or incentives of their own.

Why it matters

Conversations about how to navigate this environment and support domestic recycling markets were at the fore across various panel discussions April 22-23 at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition Impact conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We really can’t have this boom-and-bust cycle,” said Harrison Nix, vice president at Green Group Consulting. “It's not a sustainable business model for these recyclers.”

U.S. states have taken a few different approaches to policymaking that spurs recycled content use. One avenue is through recycled content-specific laws that mandate PCR rates and deadlines for specific packaging categories, such as in California and New Jersey. “There is a role for that. It levels the playing field,” said Kate Bailey, chief policy officer at the Association of Plastic Recyclers.

This news brief is based on reporting published by Packaging Dive on 2026-04-27. The original report is linked below.