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As oil prices continue to drop, so does the cost of making new plastic bottles and other products. The recycling industry has been battling with the price of oil for months now, and the industry has barely seen any improvements.
The cost to make virgin materials is less than recycling materials like plastic, and many customers are opting to buy virgin materials over recycled materials, which they now may have to pay a price for.
While low oil prices won’t last forever, the industry is currently struggling with finding a place to put plastic recyclables besides a landfill.
Tech Insider has the details:
As oil prices plummet, a surprising piece of the economy is taking a huge hit: the market for recycled plastic.
Plastics, after all, are made from petroleum — so as the price of oil drops, so does the cost of making new plastic bottles and other products.
In fact, as Marketplace reported in September, making new plastic has become less expensive than the recycling process, since cleaning and preparing used plastics takes a lot of water, energy, and effort.
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