Industry exports saw a jump in volume of nearly 4 percent from April 2016, but totals are off significantly from a year ago.
In May, the most recent month for which figures are available, scrap plastics exports totaled 417.46 million pounds, an increase of 3.9 percent from April 2016 export levels.
When matched against May 2015 levels, however, the volume of plastic scrap exports in the month was down by 15.7 percent. This follows a year-over-year lower-volume trend that has been seen through much of 2016.
The weighted price of recovered plastic exports in May 2016 was 16.3 cents per pound, down 2.7 percent from its April standing. That figure was down 11.3 percent from the price level in May 2015, when scrap plastic exports were garnering 18.4 cents per pound.
With 1.94 billion pounds of scrap plastics exported through the first five months of 2016, the year-to-date (YTD) volume was down 10.0 percent from the YTD figure this time last year.
At 16.9 cents per pound, the average price through May 2016 was down by 8.9 percent from its 2015 YTD standing.
