26 Oct 2022 --- Rigid plastics like PET bottles are recycled at a far higher rate than flexibles like PE films. However, achieving a full circularity for rigid plastics is a long way off. Lack of collection infrastructure, recycling facilities, contamination, poor design and market pricing have kept rigid plastic materials in a linear economy. A report this year by Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), which analyzed in detail the circularity of the most commonly used rigid plastic – PET – found that material is “lost at all stages” of the life cycle, and that producing quality recycled PET (rPET) is technically and economically far more challenging than virgin PET.
