NAPCOR incentivises improved PET bale quality

United States – The US-based National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) has developed new bale quality grading specifications for post-consumer PET which are intended to ‘provide incentives to suppliers to improve recycled PET quality’.

The grades are based on the weight of PET containers in a given PET sample, taken as a percentage of the weight of the total sample, or the PET fraction. Included are A, B, C and F grades, with PET proportions ranging from 94% and upwards for A-grade material to 72% and below in the case of the F grade.

To accompany the gradings, NAPCOR has also developed a PET material test audit. Both have been passed on to the Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers (APR) for final review prior to integration into the model bale specification for PET.

NAPCOR has created the gradings and bale audit test in order to ‘send a message to the marketplace that the PET reclaiming industry needs better PET bales’, says Byron Geiger, president of Custom Polymers and PET NAPCOR member. ‘We are willing to reward quality. PET reclaimers have struggled with poor bale quality and declining yields in recent years. These new specifications give us a way to provide specific feedback to the material recovery facilities we buy from and encourage them to improve quality.’

According to NAPCOR, the grades are intended to provide voluntary, industry-approved guidelines for marketers of PET bales, and to bring ‘greater standardisation’ into the marketplace.