PET bales stay low as color HDPE and aluminum climb in October index

Post-consumer PET beverage bottles and jars averaged 2.64 cents per pound this month, up from 2.53 cents in September but barely half the 5.22 cents the same bales fetched one year ago. The modest gain marks the second consecutive move upward in the plastics stream, yet most regional contracts still trade in low ranges. For reclaimers and municipal programs, the number confirms a market that has stabilized at historically depressed levels rather than recovered.

The figures come from the national average pricing survey tracked monthly by Resource Recycling, which this month recorded movement across nearly every major curbside commodity. What does this change for MRFs balancing PET revenue against falling virgin resin prices? Very little in the near term — the bale market remains a waiting game.

Which plastics moved?

Natural high-density polyethylene from curbside programs rose from 40.25 cents to 41.25 cents per pound, still well below the 46.56 cents recorded a year ago. Color HDPE posted the sharpest year-over-year move in the basket, climbing from 11.13 cents last month to 12.31 cents per pound, against just 2.69 cents one year ago — a more than fourfold increase that has quietly rebuilt value in a stream long treated as near-worthless.

Polypropylene held steady at 7.19 cents per pound, up from 5.38 cents a year ago. Film grades told a more mixed story:

• A-grade film: unchanged at 13.19 cents per pound, versus 18.06 cents a year ago
• B-grade film: flat at 4.5 cents per pound
• C-grade film: steady at -0.63 cents per pound, still a negative value that charges handlers to move material

Metals and fiber post year-over-year gains

Sorted, baled aluminum cans (UBCs) held at 96.56 cents per pound, well above the 78.44 cents of a year ago. Steel cans rose to $202 per ton, compared with $158 per ton twelve months earlier.

The paper stream carried the strongest year-over-year comparisons in the index:

• Sorted residential papers (PS 56): steady at $50–$55 per ton, versus $34 a year ago
• Mixed paper (PS 54): holding at $35–$40 per ton, versus $21 a year ago
• Sorted office papers (PS 37): $150 per ton, versus $110 a year ago
• Corrugated containers (PS 11): $93 per ton, versus $45–$50 a year ago

Corrugated containers have roughly doubled in value year over year, the largest relative gain in the entire survey. The fiber rally stands in sharp contrast to PET, where beverage bottle bales continue to trade at half their year-ago price despite the slight monthly uptick.

What decides what happens next?

The November index will show whether the two-cent PET recovery has legs or simply tracks seasonal bale supply. Color HDPE's continued climb and the negative value on C-grade film frame the two extremes MRFs now manage across the plastics stream, and the spread between film grades will test whether investment in film sorting capacity pencils out at current prices.