How does a PET recycler count the transport of bottle bales it buys?
If you pay for the transport, it is Scope 3, category 4. Multiply tonnes of bales by distance and by a freight intensity, or use the trucker's fuel. If the bale seller delivers and charges one price, the transport sits in their figure, not a separate line.
Steps
Tonnes delivered and kilometres per trip, from weighbridge slips and trip sheets.
Tonne-km x a GLEC or national intensity for the truck size, or litres of diesel x 2.68.
Report as Scope 3, category 4.
In the flake figure
Inbound transport is part of the burden recycled flakes carry under the recycled-content method, so include it when a buyer asks for a figure per kg.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.
Sources: Smart Freight Centre, GLEC Framework, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.