Dive Brief:

• The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) share that plastic bottle recycling grew 6.2% over last year.
• The rate of recycling plastic bottles reached 30.5%, up from 28.9% last year.
• 2.8 billion pounds were recycled, an increase of 161 million pounds from 2011.

Dive Insight:

The recycling rate translates to a half a pound increase per person in the United States. The volume of recycling has grown larger for the past 23 years. According to Plastics News, Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the ACC, said, “In the United States, we have the capacity to recycle more used plastics than we are currently collecting, and innovative manufacturers are using these materials in new and exciting ways."