RIPA counts US reconditioning

NEW AND PRE-USED

RECONDITIONING • RIPA’S LATEST SURVEY OF THE PACKAGING RECONDITIONING INDUSTRY SHOWS A SECTOR IN RUDE HEALTH, BOOSTED BY LOW SCRAP PRICES

THE NUMBER OF steel drums reconditioned in the US in 2019 held steady at 25m units, though the number of steel drums sent for scrap fell sharply from 2.8m in 2017 to 1.7m in 2019. At the same time, the number of plastics drums being reconditioned rose from 3.4m in 2017 to 4.7m in 2019, with the number of scrapped drums remaining largely unchanged at 2.5m.

These figures, presented by the Reusable Industrial Packaging Association (RIPA), indicate what is happening in the wider industrial packaging sector: the price of steel scrap was weak last year, discouraging scrapping, while overall there is a consistent shift away from steel drums towards the use of plastics drums, where possible.

RIPA’s data also show that the number of composite intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) being reprocessed was some 3.3m, with a modest growth in the number of 330-gallon (1,250-litre) units.

Looking in more detail, RIPA estimates that 6.97m tighthead steel drums and 18.10m open-head steel drums were reconditioned or remanufactured in 2019. Along with the scrapped drums, that puts the total US steel drum market at 26.88m units. Those numbers are consistent with the trend over the past decade, though in the 2000s around 30m steel drums were reconditioned each year.

Similarly, the number of reconditioned 55-gallon plastics drums, which increased sharply in 2019 over the figures recorded in 2015 and 2017, is still well below the level seen between 2004 and 2009, when more than 6m drums were reconditioned each year.

The reprocessing of composite IBCs has, conversely, been on a steadily increasing trend since the 2004 survey, levelling off only in the latest survey period. Out of the total 3.28m IBCs reprocessed in 2019, 2.16m were 275-gallon (1,000-litre) units, of which 1.38m were re-bottled or cross-bottled, and 1.12m were larger unit, of which only 0.2m were re-bottled or cross-bottled.

BASIS OF REPORTING RIPA’s report on the US industrial packaging recycling sector covers the 2019 calendar year and is based on data reported by 76 reconditioning locations; estimates for the total sector are extrapolated from that sample, which is thought to be indicative of the sector as a whole.

Many of the 76 reporting locations operate in all product lines, though some only handle plastics packagings. RIPA says there are 94 facilities in the US with a steel drum line, 90 with a plastics drum line and 105 with an IBC line, including companies that are not members of the Association, although RIPA says the vast majority of reconditioners operating in the US are members.

As a condition of membership, these companies adhere to Codes of Operating Practice that were carefully developed by industry experts to ensure responsible practices and environmental stewardship. RIPA and its members take very seriously their role in helping shippers meet regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and their own goals for sustainability.

Around two-thirds of the industrial packagings covered in the RIPA survey are used for the transport of hazardous materials – 61 per cent of steel drums, 68 per cent of plastics drums and 64 per cent of IBCs. These numbers have changed little over several years, RIPA says. As such, these containers must be qualified through testing to perform safely and must be marked to indicate the level of performance to which they have been certified. www.reusablepackaging.org

MORE THAN 90 PER CENT OF STEEL DRUMS