WPC 2026: PCR premium, weak demand slow plastics circularity efforts

This content is part of a series exploring key themes from the World Petrochemical Conference being held in Houston from March 23-27.

Predictable consumer demand, lower costs and legislation are all needed to overcome the current downturn in the global post-consumer resin market, according to experts at the WPC.

Various facilities for both mechanical and chemical recycling have shuttered or fully shut, as demand for post-consumer resin has weakened amid high costs and an ample supply of virgin resin.

"The global polymer industry is going through its most prolonged downcycle, driven by capacity overbuild," Olivier Maronneaud, global head of methanol and circularity at S&P Global Energy, said.

There is some progress, as Maronneaud said virgin consumption has declined 20% over the past seven years. However, weak crude oil and naphtha prices, which are supporting low virgin resin prices, have pressured demand for recycled resin.

"We did not see the progress we thought we would," Alliance to End Plastic Waste President and CEO Jacob Duer said.

Companies said consumers were unwilling to pay a premium for post-consumer resin.

"Consumers are not willing and not able to pay the price," Duer said. "For a small community in Indonesia, they cannot afford what we see as a luxury choice."

"The green transition is not capital-limited, it's demand-limited," BASF's senior vice president of petrochemicals in North America, Gulay Serhatkulu, said. "We need predictable demand and willingness to pay. In an economic downturn, you give up your choices."

The panelists continued to look toward legislation to provide relief to the recycled market.

"Legislation gives certainty and unlocks certain demand," Serhatkulu said.

If the market continues to decline, Jan-Willem Muller, managing partner of Infinity Recycling, expects consolidation among advanced and mechanical recyclers.

Despite the downturn, progress has been made in some areas.

"We have processed 150 million pounds of plastic up to date," ExxonMobil's global director of circular products, Eloissa Wells, said. "We're on our way to installing 450 million lb of processing capacity by the end of this year."