If you were to pick a Plastic of the Year for 2020, what would it be?

Considering the amount of innovation and in-market traction associated with the material, my choice for PoY would be recycled polyethylene terephthalate, even though it’s only September.

At a time when plastics are under fire in the court of public opinion and brands are moving into alternative packaging materials such as paper and metal, rPET is growing in popularity. The global rPET market is estimated to be expanding at a CAGR of 8% for the period 2019 to 2026 when it is projected to be valued at around $12.5 billion, according to a report from Acumen Research and Consulting (ARC).

Thanks largely to brand initiatives centered on internal or external recycling and packaging sustainability goals, rPET is getting a lot of press, as seen in this review of PlasticsToday articles published this year.