Post-consumer plastic bottle recycling dipped slightly in 2015 - the first drop in 25 years - at a time described as being difficult for the industry. A new report from a pair of trade groups, the Association of Plastic Recyclers and the American Chemistry Council, shows the overall recycling rate fell to 31.1 percent last year, down from 31.7 percent in 2014. And the actual total weight of post-consumer bottles collected for recycling dropped by 0.5 percent to 2.977 billion pounds. "The post-consumer plastic bottle recycling industry experienced a difficult year in 2015 with lower bale prices and lower competing virgin polymer prices for reclaimers. Margins were tight both for bale sellers and for plastic bottle reclaimers," according to the report The trade associations characterized post-consumer bottle recycling as holding "nearly steady" and staying "flat" year over year.
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