China’s aggressive PET export expansion, the resulting oversupply and low prices, together with high operating costs and scaled back use of recycle content by brands, were factors reducing global trade in 2025 in recyclable PET to its lowest level in several years, and, the announcement of several rPET plant closures.

China’s virgin PET exports (combined bottle and film/fiber grades) accounted for 45% of the total global export total of 17.7 million tons in 2025, up from 23% in 2020. (See ITP blog: “China Increasingly Dominates PET Trade“.)

Over the 2020 to 2025 period, global trade in recyclable PET ranged narrowly between 1.8 and 2.0 million tons per year, falling below 1.8 million tons in 2025.

(Note: rPET is currently traded in the Harmonized System in a grouped category with other polymers. Volume is estimated from statistics from the few countries with specific rPET codes. As of January 2028, rPET will be traded separately under the Amended Harmonized System managed by the World Customs Organization).

Several PET recycling facilities in the US and Europe have recently announced plant closures. As reported in Plastics Recycling, the Alpek Polyester plant in Pennsylvania, the largest standalone bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in the Americas, will close March 15, 2026, dealing a significant blow to PET recycling in the US.

From International Trader Publications’ World Trade Analyses on PET polymer trade and Recyclable PET/PP/Other polymer trade, continuously updated analyses based on statistics from all available countries.