According to a survey by the Freedonia market research firm, demand for goods made of recycled materials is projected to grow at a yearly rate of 5.9% in the United States, reaching 1.5 million tons in 2016. This trend appears to have produced strong incentives for investment in recycling plants in a number of countries in Latin America, principally Ecuador, Costa Rica and Argentina. The new plants are being installed at a time when technological advances have made it possible to develop relatively innovative applications, such as the expanded use of recycled materials in food containers with respect to the limits established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).