Save The Plastics

The Truths and Myths of Degradables

Envision Plastics — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:53:25 +0000

Packaging Strategies Newsletter published an article written by Envision Plastics on the truths and myths of bioresins, biodegradables and oxodegradables… To read this article please click on the link below
The Truths and Myths of Degradables-Packaging Strategies

To read entire publication click here

Environmentally Responsible Packaging in the Beauty World

Envision Plastics — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:41:18 +0000

Package optimization, corporate policy and cost factors weigh in on efforts to minimize environmental impact while protecting and delivering the product.

Click here to read full article

Trend Watch April 2013

Envision Plastics — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:05:53 +0000

The following contains a collection of the most pressing articles surrounding the recycling industry today.

April 2013-Trend Watch

Happy Earth Day – CNN Video – Turning Ocean Garbage into Soap Bottles

Envision Plastics — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:06:51 +0000

CNN Earth Day Report features Method and Envision Plastics. See the new video here…

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2013/04/22/lah-eco-garbage-into-soap.cnn

Earth Day challenge: Be a leader in recycling plastics

Envision Plastics — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:39:56 +0000

From Plastics Today

By Heather Caliendo Published: April 19th, 2013

http://www.plasticstoday.com/blogs/Earth-Day-challenge-Be-a-leader-in-recycling-plastics0419201301

Every year on April 22, more than one billion people take part in the Earth Day. From Beijing to Cairo, Melbourne to London, Rio to Johannesburg, New Delhi to New York, communities everywhere will voice their concerns for the planet, and take action to protect it, according to Earth Day network.

I’ll admit it; I’ve always loved Earth Day. I remember back in elementary school, I would proudly wear my t-shirt with a picture of the earth as my fellow classmates and I would participate in a collection of activities from helping to pick up litter around campus, planting flowers and making crafts with recycled materials.

I felt I was exposed to the importance of recycling and reusing materials fairly early on, so it’s pretty disappointing that overall recycling rates for plastics remain at about 8%. Although, there has been some encouraging news on the plastic recycling front as now at almost 39%, the recycling rate for single-serve PET plastic bottled water containers has more than doubled in the last seven years.

Obviously, the goal is a 100% recycling rate for all materials, which isn’t an impossible dream. After all, American Chemistry Council (ACC) says more than 80% of Americans have easy access to plastics recycling opportunities, whether you participate in a municipal curbside program or live near a drop-off site.

Recycling isn’t just a feel-good endeavor – there’s a whole market for it.

U.S. demand for post-consumer recycled plastic is forecast to rise 6.5% per year to 3.5 billion lb in 2016, according to the Freedonia Group. Packaging will continue to be the leading market for recycled plastic in 2016. Bottles will remain the leading source of plastic for recycling, accounting for over half of all plastic collected in 2016. PET and HDPE were the two leading resins used in recycled plastic products in 2011, accounting for more than 70% of demand.

Recycled PP

Brands such as Starbucks would love to be able to use recycled material in its packaging. Earlier this year when the Seattle-based coffee giant unveiled its $1 reusable plastic cup, Starbucks Jim Hanna, director of environmental impact for Starbucks, told me that the launch was one way to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. The reusable cups are thermoformed with 100% virgin PP, which includes the lid.

He said the company wants to be able to eventually use post-consumer resin in this cup.

“We are focusing on what we can do to reduce our footprint and one of the key aspects around sustainability and packaging is using low impact and post-consumer material,” Hanna said. “Frankly, there’s not a lot of access to post-consumer plastics in food grade applications.”

He cited a past example when the company took the initiative to start using post-consumer fiber in its paper cups. It wasn’t an easy endeavor to achieve by any means; for instance, it took a significant amount of time to get FDA approval. Still, the company is willing to go the extra mile in order to offer a complete sustainable solution.

“Sustainability needs to involve all players in the system, and we really want to challenge the plastics industry as one of its missions to offer this,” he said. “We know significant infrastructure improvements need to happen to close the loop on recycling, but we would love nothing more than to use post-consumer resin in this product.”

rPET

Arrowhead, the West Coast brand of Nestlé Waters, recently unveiled its .5-liter ReBorn bottle, made with 50% recycled PET (rPET).

“In a way, it’s a two-fold launch,” Gigi Leporati, brand manager for Arrowhead, told me. “This is not only about reducing the amount of virgin plastic, but it’s also about driving awareness of recycling and encouraging recycling. We need consumers to cooperate with us and recycle more and more in order for us to be able to use the recycled material in our bottles.”

Nestlé Waters’ newest bottled water, Resource spring water, packaged with 50% recycled PET, is now available to retailers across the U.S. The bottle is offered in 700mL and 1L single-serve bottles and six-packs.

The company conducted a trial launch of this product in 2012 in Southern California. Joe Wiggetman, general manager for Resource, said the bottles performed well to-date and delivered the margins that retailers were looking for in the bottled water category. The decision to use rPET material was made over two years ago by the company.

“The reusing of plastic, where we give them another life, is an important goal of ours,” Wiggetman said. “Recycled plastic is very symbolic of an environmental and sustainable message.”

The eventual goal is to use 100% rPET in the bottle.

“But that will certainly be based on improvements in the recycling rate as well as obtaining true quality PET,” he said. “We will take any steps further that are needed to get to that goal of 100% sometime in the future.”

Earth Day challenge & beyond

Since 1990, the plastics industry, as individual companies and through organizations such as ACC’s plastics division, has invested more than $2 billion to support increased recycling and educate communities in the U.S., according to the ACC.

But we can all do more.

Here’s the thing to keep in mind. Until recycling rates go up, consumers will continue to blame the industry for waste issues. That’s a fact.

So on this upcoming Earth Day, I ask material suppliers, device designers, plastic processors, wherever you are on the supply chain – take a closer look at your recycling initiatives. If you’re tired of bans and restrictions in packaging, do your part in adopting recycling as a cultural value.

If you don’t know where to start, visit the Earth911 Recycling Directory, which provides a variety of resources and information about recycling.

Editor’s Note: Thanks Heather for promoting plastics recycling, but don’t forget recycled HDPE. Kellogg’s Kashi brand cereal will be using our EcoPrime food grade recycled HDPE in their packaging. Kellogg’s recognizes the need to use recycled content in their packaging, not just using materials that are recyclable.

Banning Plastic Not the Solution for Cities

Envision Plastics — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:51:22 +0000

In his final State of the City address, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg put forth a proposal to ban polystyrene foam packaging. Bloomberg addressed the motivations for the ban as partly economic and partly environmental, saying that because polystyrene is not biodegradable, it costs the taxpayers extra money to remove it out of the waste.

But would a ban on the popular packaging material actually save money and create a more sustainable culture? That’s the question the American Chemistry Council set out to answer with a recent study conducted by MB Public Affairs.

The study concluded that “such a ban could nearly double food service packaging costs — while doing little to actually reduce waste”. The cost for New York City retailers to replace polystyrene food and drink containers with the next cheapest alternative would average about $91.3 million per year. Or as the report puts it:

“In other words, for every $1.00 now spent on plastic foam foodservice and drink containers, NYC consumers and businesses will have to spend at least $1.94 on the alternative replacements, effectively doubling the cost to businesses.”

We have seen attempts to ban types of plastic packaging in the past, with proponents of such measures citing the environmental benefits. But the myth that banning such substances would cure society of its sustainability problems is often misguided. The key to creating true sustainability change in society is demonstrating that it is affordable as well.

While Mayor Bloomberg may have the best intentions with this bill, it seems to ignore the bigger picture. Businesses will have to raise prices to adjust for the rise in price of buying a new material to replace pyrostyrene. Ultimately, this cost will be transferred to the customer. While the ban may relieve some of the costs associated with cleaning up pyrostyrene, it will have unintended consequences on food prices.

A better solution relies not in banning pyrostyrene or other petrochemicals, but in recycling them for reuse. Recycled material solves the landfill problem and the price problem. It is proven that recycled materials use less energy to produce than virgin material, and create a sustainable life-cycle.

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg and other politicians should consider programs that enhance plastics recycling while also encouraging the use of recycled material in products.

Hilex Poly’s Bag-2-Bag Recycling Program Gets Nod

Envision Plastics — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:48:14 +0000

A very well-deserved award for this US manufacturer and recycler of plastic bags. Click on the link to learn more and watch video.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/04/04/hilex-polys-bag-2-bag-recycling-program-gets-nod/

Plastics Recycling: Are You Still Confused?

Envision Plastics — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:47:58 +0000

The following was posted on The PlasticsBlog on March 21 by one of our favorite experts on plastics recycling, Don Loepp. It provides excellent commentary on the challenges plastics recycling faces, particularly as we try to improve our recycling rates and recycle more types of plastics. You can read the original article here: http://tinyurl.com/dysfpbq

Plastics recycling: are you still confused?
By Don Loepp | March 21, 2013 02:26 pm ET

I think it’s usually pretty easy to identify plastic products by resin type and process — although I still pause when I see an unfamiliar package on a store shelf.

But the most non-plastics folks don’t know (or care) about the difference between PET, oriented polystyrene and PVC.

And that can be a problem when someone wants to do the right thing and recycle their plastic products.

The issue was reinforced to me the past few days, which I spent at the Plastics Recycling conference in New Orleans.

I spent my time talking to many of the 1,000+ attendees — many of the people who are responsible for the tremendous growth that we’ve seen in plastics recycling.

They’d like that growth to continue to accelerate, but they know there are still some barriers to overcome.

One of the biggest problems is that the public just doesn’t fully understand plastics recycling.

Many people think they understand plastics recycling. Just ask your neighbors and friends.

If you’re lucky, they’ll tell you which plastics products they think are recyclable. (If you’re not lucky, they’ll tell you that plastics recycling is a sham, and that it all ends up in the landfill. There are a lot of conspiracy theorists out there.)

But many are confused about things like resin codes, product types and whether recyclers want people to leave caps and labels on containers.

Most folks just want to do the right thing and recycle everything. In fact, one of my fellow panelists at the conference admitted he does just that — he puts containers into his recycling bin that he knows his city doesn’t want, hoping that his small protest will convince city officials to change their minds.

With that in mind, I’d like to share a guest column that appeared in our sister publication, Waste & Recycling News, earlier this week. It was headlined: “Plastics recycling is still confusing — It’s the industry’s job to fix it.”

Spoiler alert: You probably won’t be surprised by which industry is being blamed.

The column was by Tom Watson, who manages the King County, Wash., EcoConsumer public outreach program.

He wrote that “I have an observation that I’m sure the recycling industry and plastics industry really do not want to hear: Plastics recycling is still pretty messed up.” He offers a variety of examples of materials and products, and how what’s accepted varies by community.

“The reality, it seems to me, is that plastics recycling is confusing even for the companies that collect it and make new stuff out of it. Quality control is extremely difficult. It’s gotta be. Or, if they don’t do much sorting and all they end up with is a very low grade of mixed plastic, where does all that go? I believe it’s getting recycled, but I’d sure like to know where. Probably it’s often some place overseas where very low-paid workers are sorting through it,” Watson wrote.

“And if plastics recycling is confusing for the companies that deal with it as a business, it’s much more confusing for the public. You wouldn’t believe how many questions I get about it. It’s mind-boggling how many people still put into their recycling bin everything that has the recycling symbol on it (and of course it seems logical to do that), even though there are many things with that symbol on it … that residential recycling programs definitely don’t want.”

Watson puts the blame squarely on the plastics industry.

“Recycling companies and governments are working on this problem, but personally I feel that the ball should be in the plastics industry’s court. The industry needs to provide more recycling options, do much more public education about recycling, and make its products and packaging more recyclable. But instead, the plastics industry acts like it’s the public’s fault that plastics aren’t recycled at a higher rate (recycling rates for most types of plastics are abysmal),” he wrote.

Fair criticism? Not completely. For now, which plastics are acceptable for recycling are going to vary by community, and depend on market forces and whether local recyclers can make money on them. There’s no need to standardize and pretend that certain plastics aren’t recyclable when there really is a market, even if it’s just in a handful of communities.

At the same time, it would be great for the plastics industry if there were opportunities for consumers to put almost every type of plastic into a recycling bin.

That’s a fantastic goal, and I hope that Watson’s column gets people in the plastics industry thinking about how they can achieve it.

Envision Plastics — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:25:30 +0000

This attachment contains a collection of articles about the plastics recycling industry published this month. Please see PDF below.

March 2013 Trend Watch

How A Company Recycles Ocean Plastic Twice The Size Of Texas

Envision Plastics — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:41:26 +0000

Posted on Forbes online today, Envision is once again mentioned for its collaboration with Method, to produce a resin recycled

from plastic collected from the North Pacific Garbage Gyre. Whole Foods will sell Method’s hand and dish soap product line, packaged in bottles made from 100% recycled plastic. The recycled plastic used in the packaging will include at least 10% ocean plastic from the Pacific Ocean. Read the entire article by Lisa Wirthman @ http://tinyurl.com/av7r98b