A 2019 study by The Recycling Partnership[1] identified an annual gap of more than 1 billion pounds between current U.S. supply and projected 2025 demand for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for use in bottles. To close that gap and support REMADE’s goal to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, a team from Michigan Technological University, the American Chemistry Council, and Idaho National Laboratory is developing a systems analysis framework to predict the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of establishing global closed loop cycles for PET and Olefin polymers. When completed, this framework could be used to analyze how new recovery technologies or strategies for optimizing the use of mechanical and recycling technologies would enhance the recycling of PET and Polyolefin polymers.
[1] The Bridge to Circularity: Putting the New Plastics Economy into Practice in the U.S., The Recycling Partnership (2019)