There isn’t enough recycled plastic for companies to meet… – GreenBiz

Many businesses have made commitments to drastically increase their use of post-consumer recycled content (PCR) in their packaging or products. Take Nestlé, which pledged to reach 30 percent PCR in packaging by 2025, or even L’Oréal, which usually pledged 50 percent . There are even laws taking effect that call for companies to incorporate more PCR, such as Assembly Bill 793 in California.

But there’s an elephant inside the room: There’s not enough recycled plastic for companies to fulfill those mandates or their public commitments (let alone their private ambitions).  

And we’re not moving in the right direction. Virgin versus PCR plastic material use within packaging actually increased (by 2 . 5 percent) between 2020 and 2021.  

Why is there insufficient recycled content to meet the needs of businesses?

1. We design products with a “virgin mentality” : Historically, we’ve designed our products and packages from virgin raw materials, because they’re low-cost, can be adapted for use in many applications and have been readily available. In other words, we’re actively designing from a “virgin mentality, ” relying on the price and performance that new materials offer.

   More recently, organizations are embracing — or even in some cases, are required — to use recycled content. Since the particular systems to manufacture their own products (packaging production lines) are already in place, they need in order to find reused content that behaves the same because the virgin material they are trying to replace. If characteristics such as melt flow, color plus grade (such as food grade) aren’t the same, they’ll have to modify their manufacturing processes (mold cycle times, wall thickness, color, etc . ). That can make the particular product less desirable because of a higher cost or different look and performance.

   So far, the only PCR that will seems to allow companies to avoid changing their processes is made from beverage containers (polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, drink bottles plus high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, milk jugs). Have you noticed that a T-shirt or even a shampoo bottle made from rPET (recycled PET) is not made through other T-shirts or shampoo bottles but from soda bottles? This moves the food-grade clear plastic into a non-food grade application. Once it’s made in to a T-shirt, it’s unlikely to be recycled again and would not technically be able to be made back into a soda bottle.

2. The energy crisis is making reused content much less available : The energy crisis, sparked simply by the ongoing war in Ukraine, has shaken the global energy market. In Europe and the rest of the world, recycling facilities are heavily affected.

   In Italy, the national association of companies that recycle plastics announced the particular suspension associated with 40 % of recycling activities . Plastics Recyclers Europe offers even hinted that plastic-type recycling companies could be driven out of business, as power represents up to 70 percent of operational costs . Governments would rather focus their particular energy reserves on heating and critical sectors.

   Many global businesses rely on European recyclers in order to provide content material for their packaging. With the cost of recycling going up, company obligations to integrate recycled content are not really economically viable. (Although U. S. recycling companies possess yet to be greatly affected by such a shift, the impact on their own global company plans could impede any chance associated with catching upward to timed brand responsibilities. )
    

3. There’s a lack of government support : The failure of companies to achieve their voluntary commitments is more evidence of the need for governments to step in, say the Ellen McArthur Foundation (EMF), Greenpeace and more.  

   Governments are beginning to mandate PCR make use of (such since through AB 793 in California or the European Commission’s Packaging plus Packaging Waste Directive ), yet this will be creating even more demand for the particular small pool of available PCR. What is really needed from governments is usually fiscal support of recycling where possible infrastructure and technology, plus pressure for systems to become closed loop. So, for example , soda bottle material stays in soft drinks bottles, and T-shirts are made back directly into T-shirts.

So, what now?    

The No . 1 way to address the issue is in order to design from the “waste mindset. ” Designing based on material that’s already obtainable in the waste stream — not just municipally sourced beverage containers — can be done through:

Closed-loop design: The best solution is definitely to design packaging to be closed loop (having the ability to become made back to itself at its end of life). Let’s look at two examples of this in practice.

1. HDPE hair shampoo bottle : First, examine the material characteristics of the available materials, which means looking at a pile of shampoo bottles. Design something that fits those characteristics (opaque, perhaps gray inside color, thicker-walled). Now that will you have got a closed-loop bottle style, find a good input simply by calling recycling where possible centers. You may find that taking centers are usually sorting with regard to natural-color HDPE (like milk jugs) but not darker HDPE (like shampoo bottles). Now see if you can pay them to start sorting for this new fraction. You’ll have the PCR you need, and you’ll have improved the recycling system by creating demand for more diverse types of material beyond clear PET plus HDPE, preventing “less-desirable” packaging materials from ending up in an open-loop system.
    
2. GPPS (general-purpose polystyrene) pen: You guessed it; start with a pile of pencil waste and go from there. Once you have a design, you’ll need to figure out where to source the PCR. Unlike with shampoo bottles, you won’t be able to resource material from the current recycling industry. You’ll need in order to set up your own supply chain through a take-back program.

Design from waste (not closed loop): This concept is similar to the above, but would not involve designing bottle-to-bottle or pen-to-pen. Instead, you’re turning one type of waste (not municipally sourced beverage containers) into another.

1. Source through recycling centers : Work with recycling centers to find an input (one they don’t currently sort for) that would fit the characteristics of the package you’re designing. That could be, say, dark PET or cosmetics packaging, if you’re designing the shampoo bottle. Pay the recycling centres to begin collecting plus recycling this material.
    
2. Self-source : You can also collect materials yourself. One way to go about this is by collecting “storied materials” — materials that carry a narrative and can be traced to point of origin. Collecting waste materials with a story (such as trash from the ocean or the particular top associated with Mount Everest) doesn’t seem economical at face value. But products created with storied material resonate with consumers and unlock added marketing value (from reaching sustainability goals, earning media placements and standing out on shelves) that traditional PCR can’t.

   For instance, we worked along with brand partner P& G to create shampoo containers from sea plastic . The response was so strong that P& Gary the gadget guy expanded this particular framework to its Herbal Essences line and to homecare with Fairy and Joy dish soap.

All of the over ideas represent only a step on the journey and not the answer. Recycling and using recycled content alone will not solve the particular waste crisis. We must design the idea of waste out of the system.

It’s time to invest in new business models that will enable a shift away from disposable to reusable. This will be the shift as big as moving through horse and buggy in order to gasoline-powered cars or from gas to electric vehicles. But solutions already exist to support companies in moving in order to reusable product packaging. Some have a regional reach or are sector-specific ( reusable cup programs within quick-serve restaurants in Canada and London), some are cross-sector plus global (such as Loop , a division of TerraCycle), and there are usually also various bulk initiatives run by retailers (Asda and Carrefour, for example).

With all that said, the true solution is to stop waste at the source. We all need to vote for a better future simply by buying less.