Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market is projected to expand from USD 67.81 Billion in 2025 to USD 90.41 Billion by 2031, reflecting a CAGR of 4.91%. This sector comprises materials diverted from waste streams, such as household packaging, which are reprocessed into new resin. Growth is primarily fuelled by stringent government regulations mandating recycling targets, alongside corporate sustainability pledges focused on circularity and rising consumer pressure on manufacturers to utilize reclaimed materials. Highlighting the scale of these recovery efforts, the National Association for PET Container Resources reported in 2025 that the North American PET bottle collection rate reached 39.2% in the preceding year.

However, the expansion of the market faces a significant obstacle regarding the cost competitiveness of recycled resins relative to virgin plastics. The substantial costs associated with collecting and purifying waste often lead to higher prices for recycled outputs, particularly when global oil prices decline. This economic imbalance causes demand volatility and discourages infrastructure investment, making the achievement of price parity without compromising material quality a major hurdle that restricts broader market adoption.

Market Drivers

The implementation of strict government regulations and mandates regarding plastic waste serves as the primary driver for the Global Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market. Legislative frameworks like the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) distinguish themselves from voluntary goals by enforcing legally binding recycled content percentages, creating a guaranteed demand for recycled resins.

These mandates force packaging producers to secure long-term supply contracts for post-consumer resin (PCR) to escape non-compliance penalties, effectively decoupling demand from the volatile economics of virgin plastic pricing. According to the Association of Plastic Recyclers' '2025 Plastic Recycling Capacity' report from May 2025, mechanical recyclers in the U.S. and Canada currently hold the infrastructure to process an additional 2 billion pounds of plastic annually, a capacity surplus that highlights the industry's readiness to meet these rising regulatory standards.

Furthermore, increasing corporate commitments to circular economy principles and sustainability goals are accelerating market growth as major consumer packaged goods companies aim to fulfill public environmental pledges. Multinational corporations are aggressively incorporating PCR into their supply chains to satisfy environmentally conscious consumers and lower their carbon footprints, often establishing targets that surpass minimum legal requirements. This shift converts recycled plastic from a mere cost-saving alternative into a premium commodity vital for brand reputation. As reported by The Coca-Cola Company in their September 2025 '2024 Environmental Update Report', the corporation successfully raised the rate of recycled content in its primary packaging globally to 28%. Consequently, this corporate demand drives infrastructure scale; according to Plastics Recyclers Europe in November 2025, the total installed plastics recycling capacity across Europe reached 13.5 million tonnes in 2024.

Market Challenges

The cost competitiveness of recycled resins compared to virgin plastics remains a formidable obstacle to market expansion. Recycled materials carry high production costs due to the logistical complexities of collection, sorting, and the intensive purification processes needed to meet industrial quality standards. Conversely, the price of virgin plastics is closely tied to global oil markets, enabling raw material producers to significantly reduce prices when crude oil rates fall. This economic disparity generates an unstable demand environment where manufacturers frequently revert to cheaper virgin feedstocks to protect their margins, thereby destabilizing the financial viability of recycling operations.

This absence of price parity directly deters the capital investment required to scale infrastructure and enhance processing capabilities. Faced with fluctuating demand and slim profit margins, recyclers are often compelled to decrease capacity or cease operations altogether. For instance, Plastics Recyclers Europe reported that in 2024, the total volume of recyclates produced dropped to approximately 7.5 million tonnes due to severe market pressures and high operational costs. Such statistical evidence underscores how economic unviability actively constricts the supply chain and hinders the sector from attaining the consistent growth necessary for widespread adoption.

Market Trends

The integration of advanced chemical recycling technologies is reshaping the market by facilitating the conversion of complex, mixed-waste streams into virgin-quality resins. This process circumvents the limitations associated with mechanical recycling, such as polymer degradation and contamination, enabling the production of high-value, food-grade materials from previously non-recyclable feedstocks. Validating the commercial viability of depolymerization infrastructure, Eastman reported in its August 2024 '2024 Sustainability Report' that its new molecular recycling facility in Tennessee achieved the capacity to process 110,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste annually.

Concurrently, the adoption of AI and robotics for enhanced sorting precision is revolutionizing material recovery facilities by automating quality control and maximizing feedstock purity. Advanced computer vision systems now allow for the high-speed identification of specific resin types, brands, and food-grade distinctions, significantly lowering contamination levels compared to traditional optical sorting methods. According to Greyparrot's December 2024 report, 'What We Learned by Detecting 40 Billion Waste Objects in 2024', the company’s artificial intelligence analyzers successfully characterized over 40 billion waste objects globally in a single year, highlighting the immense scale at which digital sorting solutions are being implemented to optimize recovery rates.

Key Players Profiled in the Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market

• DS Smith PLC
• Veolia Environnement SA
• Suez SA
• Waste Management, Inc.
• Republic Services, Inc.
• Waste Connections, Inc.
• Biffa PLC
• Clean Harbors, Inc.
• Stericycle, Inc.
• Remondis SE & Co. KG
• Plastipak Holdings Inc.

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market, by Source:

• Bottles
• Non-bottle Rigid

Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market, by Type:

• Polypropylene
• Polystyrene
• Polyethylene
• others

Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market, by End User:

• Packaging
• Building & Construction
• Automotive
• Electronics and Others

Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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