Scrap Paper and Plastic Exports Continue to Decline

For the fourth consecutive month, U.S. exports of scrap paper and plastic continued to decline in February. U.S. Department of Commerce numbers show that exporters shipped 1.5 million short tons of recovered fiber in February, down from 1.6 million short tons the previous month.

Resource Recycling reports that shipments by U.S. exporters to all countries combined dropped by nearly 90,000 short tons from January, with China decreasing imports from the U.S. by more than 70,000 short tons. In addition, according to data analysis by Resource Recycling, China imported its lowest monthly volume of U.S. recovered fiber since July 2003.

U.S. scrap plastic exports declined from 122 million pounds in January to 120 million pounds in February, according to the report, making that February volume the lowest single month of plastic exports since December 2003.

Resource Recycling has more information:

U.S. exports of scrap paper and plastic continued to drop in February, marking the fourth straight month of declining shipments for both commodities.

The U.S. Department of Commerce released February 2019 export statistics last week. The numbers show U.S. exporters shipped 1.5 million short tons of recovered fiber in the second month of the year, down slightly from the 1.6 million short tons exported in January.

The February 2019 recovered fiber figure is lower than February totals over the past few years, but not significantly so.

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