Cost impact calculator for rPET 25% mandates
Regulatory pressure is reshaping the economics of PET preforms, and a new free tool is helping manufacturers, brand owners, and supply chain teams quantify the impact. Shanghai-based company iBottling has published a non-commercial rPET 25% mandate cost model, designed to translate recycled content requirements into actionable financial insights.
The tool synthesises multiple factors – including resin price spreads, scrap and quality adjustments, operational costs, and penalties under regional regulations – to provide a clear framework for calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) for rPET blends. It supports scenario planning, enabling companies to evaluate different compliance routes and understand where cost pressures may arise.
Two regulatory anchors are central to the tool. The EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive requires a minimum of 25% recycled content in PET beverage bottles by 2025, increasing to 30% by 2030. In North America, California’s AB 793 mandates 25% post-consumer recycled content by 2025, rising to 50% by 2030, with explicit shortfall penalties for non-compliance. The iBottling tool incorporates these and other policy-driven costs, such as the EU plastics own-resources levy, enabling manufacturers to make informed decisions about procurement, production, and capital investments.
Designed for practical use, the model allows teams to adjust inputs such as preform weight, annual volume, rPET premiums, scrap rates, and energy consumption, turning regulatory requirements into clear cost scenarios. It also addresses operational considerations, including quality assurance, drying parameters, and intrinsic viscosity control, which are critical for maintaining food-contact compliance and minimizing yield losses.
iBottling emphasises that rPET mandates are no longer simply sustainability initiatives but represent a calculable cost center that must be actively managed. By blending commodity market dynamics with plant-specific variables, the tool had been developed to provide a realistic view of compliance costs and highlights where investment in QA or process optimisation can yield the greatest return.
With market premiums for food-grade rPET fluctuating across regions, the tool also allows users to simulate scenarios in which the cost of recycled resin exceeds penalty thresholds or where operational adjustments can offset price spreads.