Q&A: Recycling Partnership VP Calls CPGs’ Attention to Polypropylene Recycling

There are a number of CPGs, but members from across the supply chain, that were the founding members of the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, and they are still with us today. They still see and recognize there is need for investment in the system to support polypropylene recycling outside of what TRP offers. I also see a lot of these CPGs, they have become much more savvy in the last 10 years about what it means to design for recyclability, making sure they're using industry guidance like APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers)'s design guides, and they're becoming much more savvy with understanding what a MRF (Material Recovery Facility) does and understanding then how the material flows from there and end markets.

I'm watching more of them [go on] tours at MRFS or reclaimers, and they have become much more engaged in the process, which again, gives them a vested interest, not just in the material, but the journey of that material through the recycling system.

[Note: The Recycling Partnership's Polypropylene Coalition has awarded roughly $20 million in grants, yielding promising case study results.

Ocean County, N.J's Northern Recycling Center installed an optical sorter in the second half of 2023 that has captured over 850,000 lbs of polypropylene and routinely collects more in one month than it did in an entire year.

In 2024, Recology in Sonoma Marin, Calif. worked with the Coalition to include dedicated polypropylene recycling in its $35 million MRF modernization project which helped to meet the state's ambitious recycling mandates.

Lastly, the Waste Commission of Scott County, Iowa installed an optical sorter and a storage bunker, which enabled a leap in capture rates from roughly 90,000 lbs in fiscal year 2023 to over 634,000 lbs in the first half of 2024. The grant also funded education campaigns to inform residents about polypropylene acceptance.]

How can effort and attention toward polypropylene recycling provide CPGs tangible benefits?

I think a great example with polypropylene is to say we need to create a playbook that's going to inform compliance in EPR states. That playbook will be filled with all the best practices the coalition has learned to date and will continue support what it means to get more consumers to put material in the bin, specifically polypropylene and other containers, how to get that to a MRF that's able to sort it, how to keep moving it through the chain in order to continue to get critical insights needed around the most difficult part of the recycling chain, which is convincing residents to put material and the right material in their bin that requires investment.

Right now, the tradeoff for these CPGs is a playbook that helps inform how to meet compliance targets because otherwise, states like California have a 65% recycling rate to achieve. That is Herculean. So, we need to squeeze every last bit of material out of every single stage of the supply chain. And again, a massive opportunity is getting more material out of households. We need CPGs to invest in that research that will pay off because it will mean that they will be able to achieve compliance in EPR states or have a fighting chance to show that real progress is being made. 

If you had one piece of advice to share with CPGs considering bettering strategies to recycle polypropylene, what would you give?

The biggest piece of advice I would give right now is there is only so much that can be done to support the system and make the economics work without demand for material that has recycled polypropylene in it. And I think oftentimes people jump to, “Well, I can't put the current quality of recycled polypropylene into my food contact packaging. That’s a journey of materials that [makes it so] I can't put that into a food contact or my clam shell that goes around a cosmetic product because it will have a tinge to it."

The material is not the quality we need to stimulate the market to lead to investment that would create food grade content that requires demanding the material now, which means purchasing durable goods that have recycled polypropylene in it. There are a number of companies who have really worked to become innovative with what they're doing. There are pallet companies incorporating recycled polypropylene into their plastic pallets or floor mats in industrial settings that are incorporating it. There are a lot of opportunities for CPGs to use that type of durable good within the footprint of what they do. 

Do you have any other comments or insight to offer for CPGs when it comes to polypropylene recycling?

What I would want to add for CPGs is there are amazing industry organizations out there working hard every day to support the recycling system that have deep knowledge on materials like polypropylene. They should not hesitate to reach out to ask questions, to understand the system more. Certainly, The Recycling Partnership obviously has a well-established coalition. But there are a number of other amazing industry groups that are happy to help and really want people to reach out so that we can all just continue to work towards improving the system, improving education around it. Go tour your local MRFs. That's the other big thing I tell CPGs all the time. Go see recycling in action.