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Weekly Report | US Announces Reciprocal Tariff on PET and rPET; Hubei Dawu PET Recycling Industrial Park Tender

Recycled PET New Horizons 2025-09-15 09:51:22

Domestic Hot Topics

1. Total investment exceeds 500 million, with an annual production of 300,000 tons: Bidding for the PET Circular Economy Industrial Park in Dawu, Hubei.

2. Collaborative Research and Industrialization Demonstration of Key Technologies for High-Quality and Functional Fabrics of Recycled Polyester Fibers, Selected for Anhui's "Manufacturing Industry Challenge and Leadership" List for 2025

The R&D and industrialization of key technologies for the production of high-strength recycled polyester yarns from waste polyester have been selected for the 2025 "Revealing the List and Taking the Lead" project list in Sanming City.

4. Hengshen Group and Ambercycle establish an industrial closed-loop recycling system for nylon and polyester.

The phosphorus chemical team has made new progress in the research of catalytic recycling of waste plastics using black phosphorus.

6. The Zhejiang University team developed a transesterification strategy to convert waste PET plastics into high-value ester compounds.

Customs seized 44.83 tons of a mixed solid waste consisting of colored plastic scraps that are prohibited for import.

International Hotspots

8. Severe Impact on Asian Markets! The United States Announces Imposition of Equivalent Tariffs on PET and Recycled PET.

France’s new high-subsidy policy for recycled plastics is in effect, with subsidies up to 1,000 euros per ton.

10. New regulation in South Korea: Starting from 2026, bottled water must contain 10% rPET, and this amount will double by 2030!

11. High-purity monomer closed-loop recycling of PET/PLA/PBAT/PBS mixed polyesters has been successfully validated at a kilogram scale.

12. PET bottles transformed into materials that "consume" CO₂: Latest advances in chemical recycling and high-value reuse of waste plastics | Science Advances

LNJ GreenPET and Sumitomo Corporation Sign Strategic Cooperation Memorandum on r-PET: Targeting Mass Production of Food-Grade Recycled PET in India by 2026

14. "One-Cap Recycling": Nviro1 Launches PET Bottle Caps That Can Be Recycled Together with Bottles

Domestic Hot Topics

Total investment exceeds 500 million yuan, with an annual output of 300,000 tons: Hubei Dawu PET Circular Economy Industrial Park opens for bidding.

On September 9th, the Phase I project (EPC) of the multi-level PET circular economy industrial park in Dawu County announced its construction report (Project No. HBDW-202509FJ-015). The bidding enterprise for this project is Yixun Resource Recycling (Hubei) Co., Ltd. The project location is in Lechong Community, Chengguan Town, Dawu County, east of Changxing First Road, and south of the planned Ring First Road, with a total investment of 512.9188 million yuan.

The construction (tender) is divided into two phases, Phase One and Phase Two. Phase One involves an investment of approximately 608.2324 million yuan, covering an area of about 200 acres, with a total construction area of approximately 100,000 square meters. It includes the construction of a production line with an annual output of 200,000 tons of recycled PET polyester bottle flakes, a production line for 100,000 tons of recycled PET polyester chips, and a PE/PP granule production line. The planned start date is October 10, 2025, with a construction period of 730 days.

2 Collaborative Research and Industrialization Demonstration of Key Technologies for High-Quality and Functional Recycled Polyester Fiber Fabrics, Proposed for Inclusion in Anhui's 2025 Manufacturing "Challenge and Lead" List

On September 3, the Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology announced the public notice of the guidance directory for the 2025 manufacturing "Lead the Way" initiative for talent recruitment and intelligence introduction. After processes including enterprise application, city recommendations, and expert review, it plans to select "Serial Number 260: Collaborative Research on Key Technologies for High-Quality and Functional Recycled Polyester Fiber Fabrics and Industrialization Demonstration" for inclusion in the 2025 manufacturing "Lead the Way" directory.

Research and development of key technologies for the production and industrialization of recycled high-strength polyester yarn from waste polyester has been selected for the 2025 Sanming City "Bidding for Leadership" project list.

On September 10, the Sanming Municipal Science and Technology Bureau issued a notice on the release of the 2025 Sanming "Challenge Trophy" Project List. List Two: Key Technology Research and Industrialization of Environmentally Friendly Recycling of Waste Polyester into High-Strength Polyester Yarn (Guide Code: SM2025H132).

Hengshen Group and Ambercycle are building an industrial closed-loop recycling system for nylon and polyester.

Recently, Hengshen Group, a leading global company in the nylon industry, and Ambercycle, an innovative company in the field of circular materials, made a joint appearance. At the conference, Cai Lingzhi, the Director of Sustainable Development Strategy at Hengshen Group, shared the latest progress of the collaboration. He introduced that Ambercycle focuses on polyester regeneration, while Hengshen is deeply involved in the field of regenerated nylon. The core of their collaboration is the "Textile-to-Textile" closed-loop recycling model, empowering the circular utilization of two major types of synthetic fiber materials: polyester and nylon.

Matthew Iezzi, Production Director at Ambercycle, emphasized: "Hengshen and Ambercycle are jointly pioneering a brand-new path—establishing an 'interfiber circularity system' at an industrial scale."

The phosphorus chemistry team has made new progress in the catalytic recycling of waste plastics using black phosphorus.

Recently, the Phosphorus Chemical Engineering team from the School of Chemical Engineering at Kunming University of Science and Technology has made new progress in the research of black phosphorus-catalyzed recycling of waste plastics. The related results have been published in the top international catalysis journal, ACS Catalysis (Impact Factor 13.1, Top Q1), under the title "Effects of Conduction Band Edge Regulation on the Photoreforming Efficiency of Plastic Waste: Taking BPNS/TiO2 as a Photocatalyst."

Zhejiang University team develops depolymerization strategy to convert waste PET plastics into high-value ester compounds.

Recently, the team led by Mei Qingqing from Zhejiang University published a study titled "A general esterolysis strategy for upcycling waste polyesters into high-value esters" in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers proposed and validated a general "esterolysis" chemical strategy that enables the efficient conversion of various waste polyesters into high-value ester compounds.

The research team designed a reaction system using dimethyl carbonate as the substrate and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIm][OAc]) as the catalyst. This system not only achieved near-quantitative yields of high-value target products in the chemical recycling of common waste plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) but also demonstrated the broad applicability of this method to various polyester materials, providing a new chemical pathway for the valorization of waste plastics.

Customs seized 44.83 tons of prohibited imported solid waste mixed colored plastic fragments.

Recently, Rizhao Customs under Qingdao Customs seized a batch of crushed plastics, totaling 44.83 tons, which are actually prohibited solid waste imports.

When customs officers inspected an imported shipment declared as "polybutylene terephthalate" plastic scraps, they found that the batch consisted of a mixture of multicolored plastic fragments of various shapes, some of which were irregular scraps and damaged parts.

According to the identification by Qingdao Customs Technology Center, the main components of the goods are actually polyhexamethylene terephthalamide, polytetrafluoroethylene, etc. They are a mixture of defective products, scraps, or offcuts generated during the plastic processing, which are classified as solid waste.

International Hotspots

Severely Impacting the Asian Market! The United States Announces Equivalent Tariffs on PET and Recycled PET.

On September 5, local time, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order titled "Amending the Scope of Reciprocal Tariffs and Establishing Procedures for Implementing Trade and Security Agreements," which can be seen as an important strategic adjustment within the existing framework of trade policy.

According to the document, HS codes 3907.61.00 and 3907.69.00, which involve various forms of PET, have been removed from Annex II. This means that starting from the third day after the announcement (i.e., 12:01 AM Eastern Time on September 8), goods entering consumption or being withdrawn from warehouses will be subject to new tariffs. Traders and exporters have expressed concerns about this move, believing it will significantly alter trade patterns, especially for Indian exporters who rely on local recycling companies to meet U.S. demand.

9 France's new high subsidy policy for recycled plastics implemented, up to 1000 euros per ton

In September 2025, the French Ministry of Ecological Transition issued a new decree under the Environmental Code, which stipulates that starting from 2026, local recycled plastic producers will be rewarded with subsidies of up to €1,000 per ton. The subsidies will be tiered based on the source of recycled plastic: €450 per ton for cross-EPR industries, €550 per ton for the same industry, and €1,000 per ton for hard-to-recycle plastics (such as opaque PET, HDPE, etc.) used in sensitive areas like food packaging. Additionally, it requires that the recycling chain is located in compliant areas and provides traceability documents, and mandates that by 2030, the recycled content in beverage bottles made of PET and HDPE must reach 30%.

The Netherlands is following up with a more aggressive capital allocation, setting aside €10.63 million in 2025 as a special subsidy for the application of recycled materials. Simultaneously, €80 million will be allocated for emission reduction projects and €35.5 million for innovation grants focused on recycling, with an emphasis on improving sorting efficiency and breakthroughs in microplastics reduction technologies.

New Regulation in South Korea: Starting from 2026, bottled water must contain 10% rPET; by 2030, this amount is required to double!

On February 21, 2025, the Ministry of Environment of South Korea issued a legislative announcement regarding the amendment of the sections of the "Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources."

On September 5, 2025, the South Korean Ministry of Environment officially announced a draft revision, which stipulates that starting from January 1, 2026, all PET bottles for bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages must contain at least 10% recycled material. Furthermore, the government plans to gradually increase this percentage, aiming to raise the usage rate to 30% by 2030, in order to further reduce plastic waste and promote the development of a circular economy.

It is worth noting that PET bottles for beer are not included in this mandatory regulation. According to the South Korean distribution industry, beer PET bottles account for about 15% of overall sales. Because beer is sensitive to sunlight and oxygen, companies often use brown PET bottles to maintain flavor and aroma, which have a different structure from regular transparent single-layer PET bottles. The Ministry of Environment stated that it will first focus on building a circular economy system centered around transparent PET bottles and will gradually expand to include beer bottles in the future.

High-purity monomer closed-loop recycling of PET/PLA/PBAT/PBS blended polyesters has been achieved, with kilogram-scale validation completed.

Recently, a research team led by Professor Katrina M. Knauer at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) proposed a mixed polyester closed-loop recycling process based on amine-catalyzed methanolysis (ACM), which can efficiently decompose various petrochemical and bio-based polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), and polybutylene succinate (PBS) into monomers under mild conditions. The process allows for the precise separation of high-purity raw materials, which can be repolymerized into new materials with performance equivalent to virgin plastics. This approach is not only economically viable but also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, providing a practical technological pathway for the plastic circular economy. The related findings were published in "Nature Chemical Engineering" under the title "Closed-loop recycling of mixed polyesters via catalytic methanolysis and monomer separations."

12 PET bottles transformed into a material that "eats" CO₂: Latest achievements in chemical recycling and high-value utilization of waste plastics | Science Advances

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used plastic with low recycling rates. Researchers have successfully synthesized a novel solid-state carbon dioxide adsorbent, bis-aminoethyl terephthalamide (BAETA) and its oligomers (OLs), through the chemical recycling of waste PET plastic via aminolysis. BAETA exhibits excellent carbon dioxide selectivity, thermal stability at high temperatures (>250°C), and good recyclability (up to 150 cycles). This material can efficiently capture carbon dioxide from flue gas (5-20% CO₂) and air (400 ppm CO₂), even under humid conditions without affecting its adsorption capacity. The study demonstrated the feasibility of large-scale production of this material from untreated consumer-grade waste PET (1 kilogram), offering a potential dual solution to plastic pollution and carbon emissions.

13 LNJ GreenPET and Sumitomo Corporation Sign Strategic Memorandum of Understanding on r-PET: Targeting Mass Production of Food-Grade Recycled PET in India by 2026

LNJ GreenPET, a subsidiary of India's LNJ Bhilwara Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan's Sumitomo Corporation to establish a strategic collaboration on an Indian recycled polyethylene terephthalate (r-PET) project. The cooperation covers various aspects including commercial development, raw material procurement, marketing, and potential investments. Both parties plan to commence commercial production in 2026 and aim to complete market research, customer segmentation, and supply chain benchmarking prior to mass production.

"One Cap for All": Nviro1 Releases Recyclable PET Bottle Caps That Can Be Recycled Along with the Bottle

The American startup Nviro1 has collaborated with the mold technology company Z-Moulds to develop a new PET bottle cap that can be recycled together with the bottle. This cap, named NviroCap, is made from 100% PET material and can be recycled directly with PET bottles or cans, eliminating the need for consumers to manually separate the cap from the bottle, thereby simplifying the recycling process and enhancing recycling efficiency. The product has already been granted a U.S. patent (Patent No.: US 11,591,141 B2) and is currently applying for patents in other countries.

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Weekly Report | US Announces Reciprocal Tariff on PET and rPET; Hubei Dawu PET Recycling Industrial Park Tender

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