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Editorial image for The rPET Boom Just Got Its First Crack. India's Biggest Chemical Recycling Plant Has Been Cut by a Third Before a Single Brick Was Laid.

Editor’s PickIndustry Trends3 Nov 20268 minPlastic, PET

The rPET Boom Just Got Its First Crack. India's Biggest Chemical Recycling Plant Has Been Cut by a Third Before a Single Brick Was Laid.

On 15 October 2026, Loop Industries told investors it had shrunk the planned capacity of India's first large-scale PET depolymerisation plant from 70,000 to 45,000 tonnes a year, a 36% cut. Construction has not started. The company's board has formed a committee to weigh a sale. Mechanical recyclers are running ahead, but they cannot eat the coloured, contaminated PET that chemical recycling was supposed to handle. That waste stream just lost its most visible exit.

Supply Shortage

Clear colour-sorted PET bottles on a conveyor feeding a food-grade recycling and washing line in India

Editor’s PickIndustry Trends18 Oct 20267 minPlastic, PET

India Is Building Food-Grade rPET Plants Faster Than It Can Feed Them. Clean PET Bottles Are Now the Scarce Input.

On 15 October 2026, the country's largest PET recycler cleared its fourth food-grade recycled-PET line, part of a wave of capacity built to meet the rule that food and drink brands must use 40% recycled plastic in 2026-27. India now has about 17 FSSAI-approved food-grade rPET plants with roughly 3 lakh tonnes a year of capacity, heading towards an estimated 7.5 lakh tonnes by March 2027. But a food-grade plant cannot run on just any bottle. It needs clean, clear, well-sorted PET, and that is exactly the material the collection chain is worst at supplying. The bottleneck is no longer plants. It is feedstock.

Buyer Demand

Editor’s PickIndustry Trends27 Sept 20268 minPET, HDPE, PP

PET Bottle Scrap Is Getting More Valuable. Here's Why.

Reliance and IVL Dhunseri raised virgin PET prices by ₹2 a kg from 24 September 2026, with Brent crude above $100 a barrel. It lands at the halfway mark of the first year in which rigid plastic packaging must carry 40% recycled content. In May 2026, recyclers said a fifth or more of their food-grade capacity was idle, while an industry body representing beverage makers says supply falls short. Dearer virgin resin weakens the cost case for waiting and gives more bargaining power to whoever holds clean PET bottles.

Editor’s PickIndustry Trends1 Sept 20261 minPlastic, PET, HDPE, PP

Indian rPET Market: High Shipping Costs Stall Exports

India's rPET market stays steady as scrap sellers hold stock for post-monsoon demand. High ocean freight costs continue to stall export sales.

Buyer DemandSeller OpportunityPrice IncreaseSupply Shortage

Technology6 Aug 20265 minPlastic, PET

Bottle-to-bottle PET capacity is being built faster than collection can feed it

Food-grade rPET commitments assume a bottle recovery rate the collection network does not currently deliver.

Buyer DemandPrice IncreaseInvestment OpportunitySupply Shortage

The rPET Boom Just Got Its First Crack. India's Biggest Chemical Recycling Plant Has Been Cut by a Third Before a Single Brick Was Laid.

Supply Shortage

India Is Building Food-Grade rPET Plants Faster Than It Can Feed Them. Clean PET Bottles Are Now the Scarce Input.

PET Bottle Scrap Is Getting More Valuable. Here's Why.