U.S. Plastic Scrap Exports Nosedived 30%

The exports of plastic waste and scrap by the U.S. recorded sharp decline during the previous year. The exports during 2018 tumbled sharply by almost 30% over 2017 to total $445.66 million. This is when compared with the exports of $632.88 million during the entire year 2017, in accordance with the latest trade statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

The primary destination of U.S. plastic scrap exports was Canada. The exports to that country rose marginally by 1.69% year-on-year to total $69.08 million. Canada accounted for 15.5% of the total U.S. shipments during the year. The U.S. exports to Malaysia and Hong Kong totaled $57.18 million and $53.97 million respectively. The other two major importing countries were India ($49.96 million) and Thailand ($43.08 million).

 

The combined imports by the above top five foreign markets totaled $273.26 million of scrap plastics, accounting for more than 61% of the total U.S. exports.

 

On the contrary, the imports of plastic waste and scrap recorded notable jump in 2018. The country’s imports stood at $245.11 million during the year, 10.65% higher when compared with the imports of $221.52 million in 2017.

 

The top supplier of scrap plastic to the U.S. was Mexico, which reported almost 16% jump in exports to the U.S. The shipments from the neighboring country totaled $98.72 million, representing over 40% of total U.S. imports. The other main supplier was Canada with $47.05 million. The above two countries were responsible for approximately 60% of the total U.S. imports. In third place was Honduras with supplies totaling $10.59 million. The U.S. imports from China recorded over 13% decline when matched with 2017.