Newsroom archive
2020 brings twists to supply and demand for PCR PET
The pandemic year scrambled both sides of the post-consumer PET market at once: collection disrupted, demand reshaped.

2020 hit the post-consumer PET market from both directions. Collection programs were suspended or slowed just as households generated more packaging at home, and cheap virgin resin tempted converters exactly when brand commitments argued for recycled content.
For suppliers, the year was a stress test of the just-in-time discipline this market demands. The lesson GHD took from it still holds: reliable food-grade supply is built before the twist arrives, not after.
The economics of that tug-of-war, updated: rPET versus virgin PET prices.
From the GHD Americas newsroom archive. Originally shared on January 11, 2021.
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