Newsroom archive

2021: the year of the package

After a year of lockdowns and home delivery, packaging entered 2021 at the center of the conversation, and of the recycling stream.

Large bales of recovered post-consumer packaging stacked outdoors under a blue sky

The pandemic year moved daily life into the home, and the packaging came with it. By January 2021 the evidence was stacked in every recovery yard: more single-serve formats, more shipping boxes, more bottles collected at the curb instead of away from home.

Calling 2021 the year of the package was less a prediction than a description. The volumes were already there; the question was whether collection, sorting and end markets could keep pace.

How that question looks now: our analysis of the US PET recycling rate.

Start a supply program

From the GHD Americas newsroom archive. Originally shared on January 11, 2021.