Plastics Industry Association Educates Consumers, Policymakers on Recycling

Patrick Krieger of the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) shares updates on the association’s Recycling is Real video campaign and discusses the organization's new initiative to increase flexible film recycling.

Patrick Krieger, Vice President of Sustainability, the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS)
Patrick Krieger, Vice President of Sustainability, the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS)

Today at the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) booth at the Plastics Recycling Conference in Grapevine, Tex., Patrick Krieger, vice president of sustainability for  the association, sat down with Packaging World to share details on PLASTICS’ Recycling is Real campaign and its new Flexible Film Recycling Alliance (FFRA).

Editor’s Note: Launched in fall of 2023, the Recycling is Real advocacy campaign is dedicated to promoting and defending plastic recycling in America. A large component of the campaign is a series of videos of recycling companies telling their stories. FFRA is an industry coalition created to improve the recycling of flexible film products by working to accelerate recycling rates, access, and education.

Packaging World:

Could you share some background on PLASTICS’ Recycling is Real campaign? What drove the project, and what story are you trying to tell?

Patrick Krieger:

The genesis of this campaign is actually something that we’ve heard over and over again from people who ostensibly care about the environment, but interestingly enough are actually pretty critical of recycling—specifically that recycling and plastic recycling is a myth. That’s something we’ve heard over and over again, and it’s just wrong. It’s just inaccurate based on everything that we do in our industry association.

At events like this, we really want to make sure that people see that recycling is real and that it is happening every day, so this campaign is intended to be an opportunity for people to be able to see companies that are actually physically recycling plastics. We know that recycling is a system, it’s not a single act. It’s not putting a bottle in a recycling bin. It requires a wide variety of steps that all have to happen to make sure that product becomes something new at its end of use. And so Recycling is Real is highlighting the companies that are doing that activity.

Just to level set on terminology, when we’re talking about plastics recyclers, do you consider the MRFs [Material Recycling Facilities] the recyclers or the companies that are buying the materials from the MRFs and then processing them into pellets?

So again, recycling is a system, not an act. So everybody is doing something differently. A MRF does sortation. They are separating the wide variety of materials—metals, fiber, glass, plastics—into various bales for subsequent processing. And then you go to plastics recyclers, in our industry, and so yes, those are who we refer to as the recyclers. I think a lot of people do happen to think that most of the magic is happening at the MRF, and it is a very important and very cool step, but it’s not the only thing that’s happening, it’s just one step in the process.

Are most of the Recycling is Real videos are from plastics recyclers?

Yes

Is it the primary role of plastics recyclers to turn the baled plastic waste into recycled resin?

It depends. Once you get to the plastics recycler, there are a wide variety of models. Some recyclers take that plastic and are washing, sorting, and pelletizing it, and then that material is subsequently going to somebody else for compounding, which means that they’re adding additives to it or other things. And then it’s going to a processor converter.

But more and more we’re also seeing processor converters. A really great example is Placon, one of the participants in the [Recycling is Real] campaign. Placon does recycling, and then they use that material to make new products again.


   Read this related article on Packaging World’s 2023 Packaging Recycling Summit, “PRS23: Collaboration is Key to Driving Recycling Success”
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