After being copied on an introductory email to the plastics marketing rep of Waste Management, I called him, hoping he would be able to provide some clarification into why clamshells are not recycled in most American communities.
This is how I summarized my conversation with the plastics marketing rep of WM to Robert:
Hey Robert,
I spoke with the plastics marketing rep from Waste Management about the feasibility of finding a market for non-beverage PET flake (the educational director at WM said that the buyers of PET specify that they don’t want PET clams in the PET beverage bales) and he said that the economics don’t support it. In other words, because of the different properties of the different types of PET (RPET, REPTG, APET, etc.), buyers of balled PET only want bottles as they have the same properties and therefore can be recycled into a new product with the same properties i.e. the green plastic cables that are used to strap components together. Also, the quantity is not there, as in the case with PET bottles, so finding a market for PET clams doesn’t seem possible in this economic environment. However, on the east and west coasts, there is a market for “non-traditional” rigid containers insofar as China will buy them to regrind and make new product.
I feel as though I have been shot! I am cooking up another idea, however, that looks to work with a retailer OR a consumer electronic producer.
The plastic rep from WM said I should look into PLA (he said that it can degrade in a landfill?) or waste-to-energy. I know how you feel about “down recycling” but he told me of a company in Madison, Wisconsin, that takes “non traditional” plastics i.e. films, foams, etc. and blends them with coal to produce steam to create electricity. He said that this is cheaper than landfilling and that the energy is being used to power U of W.
What is a plastic thermoformer to do in order to become more sustainable? Now that I have shelved the recycling idea, I don’t know the next best place to look…
If you have any insight, please let me know!
Again, thanks for all your help; I am very glad I met you!
Oh, the bitter taste of defeat.
The plastics marketing rep of WM is the one who is responsible for finding a supplier and buyer of post-consumer plastic material. Therefore, he is the guy who would be able to explain why there is no buyer of non-beverage PET flake (RPET and PET thermoforms). This is what he told me:
There is no buyer of non-beverage PET flake because no one has every invested the time or money necessary to set up this infrastructure, find a buyer, outline the specs, etc. As WM has become more sophisticated, we have been able to recycle a lot more materials than previously recycled; therefore, non-bottle PET is just another material that we are working towards being able to recycle but have not done so successfully yet.
The reason buyers of PET bottle flake do not want PET/RPET thermoforms is because of the possibility of contamination (one PVC clam could contaminate the whole bale), and the different IV between PET bottle grade and PET thermoform grade, which makes for differences in the way things “fly” and “melt” while being repossessed.
Okay… this seems complicated but not that complicated. I know from previous conversations with Robert that most cities in California accept and recycle plastics 1-7 because of the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which requires local governments to reach a 50% diversion rate. This Act, consequentially, has facilitated the creation of new end markets for these materials post-consumer, which unfortunately, is not the case here.
Do we need to have legislation enacted to provide the motivation to find an end market for mixed rigid plastic containers and packages?
I then received the following email from Robert, which was very much needed in this time of defeat:
Chandler,
Try not to be discouraged. These things take a long time to sort through and creating markets for materials is challenging to say the least! There isn’t just an answer out there waiting to be found. These things need to be teased into existence. They need people (like you) to keep stoking the fire, prodding things along, and creating pressure. Keep at it and you’ll come up with something that’ll work. Maybe it’ll be a few things…at first…small scale. Then maybe one will take off.
The thing about recyclers is that they like what they know (even with Starbucks, they’re facing lots of concerns from recyclers accepting their cups with corrugated). They know PET bottles…so they’re nervous about anything else. Even if it were exactly the same they’d be nervous…so it’d be a matter of either proving through massive testing that it will work the same, or going for another grade of plastic. If you created a new grade of plastic material with its own unique specifications, then everybody would know what to expect from the start. Now…you’d have to have somebody lined up who can use that plastic… It’s a bit of a paradox really…you can’t collect/bale the plastic if there’s nobody to buy/use it, but nobody is going to buy/use it unless there’s a good, steady supply of the stuff with consistent specifications…
Also, PLA will not degrade in the landfill; it requires a commercial composting facility.
Have you considered moving away from single-use thermoformed containers and into more durable containers? Can you make durable containers with the same process? More and more places are feeling the push both from regulators and the public to go green…some are doing it through switching to PLA, some go to cornstarch, and some are going to reusables. Eat-in facilities rather than take-out. Options to fill customer’s dishes with food rather than their own single-use containers. Or even the concept that’s being used with some food manufacturers (deli meats come to mind) where they sell their food product in a container that can be used again and again at home for leftovers…not for refilling its original product…but reused nonetheless..
Well, I’ve rambled on long enough! Don’t give up!!! We need people like you in industry!!
Robert
What a guy! Tune in tomorrow for more about recycling in America!
This is how I summarized my conversation with the plastics marketing rep of WM to Robert:
Hey Robert,
I spoke with the plastics marketing rep from Waste Management about the feasibility of finding a market for non-beverage PET flake (the educational director at WM said that the buyers of PET specify that they don’t want PET clams in the PET beverage bales) and he said that the economics don’t support it. In other words, because of the different properties of the different types of PET (RPET, REPTG, APET, etc.), buyers of balled PET only want bottles as they have the same properties and therefore can be recycled into a new product with the same properties i.e. the green plastic cables that are used to strap components together. Also, the quantity is not there, as in the case with PET bottles, so finding a market for PET clams doesn’t seem possible in this economic environment. However, on the east and west coasts, there is a market for “non-traditional” rigid containers insofar as China will buy them to regrind and make new product.
I feel as though I have been shot! I am cooking up another idea, however, that looks to work with a retailer OR a consumer electronic producer.
The plastic rep from WM said I should look into PLA (he said that it can degrade in a landfill?) or waste-to-energy. I know how you feel about “down recycling” but he told me of a company in Madison, Wisconsin, that takes “non traditional” plastics i.e. films, foams, etc. and blends them with coal to produce steam to create electricity. He said that this is cheaper than landfilling and that the energy is being used to power U of W.
What is a plastic thermoformer to do in order to become more sustainable? Now that I have shelved the recycling idea, I don’t know the next best place to look…
If you have any insight, please let me know!
Again, thanks for all your help; I am very glad I met you!
Oh, the bitter taste of defeat.
The plastics marketing rep of WM is the one who is responsible for finding a supplier and buyer of post-consumer plastic material. Therefore, he is the guy who would be able to explain why there is no buyer of non-beverage PET flake (RPET and PET thermoforms). This is what he told me:
There is no buyer of non-beverage PET flake because no one has every invested the time or money necessary to set up this infrastructure, find a buyer, outline the specs, etc. As WM has become more sophisticated, we have been able to recycle a lot more materials than previously recycled; therefore, non-bottle PET is just another material that we are working towards being able to recycle but have not done so successfully yet.
The reason buyers of PET bottle flake do not want PET/RPET thermoforms is because of the possibility of contamination (one PVC clam could contaminate the whole bale), and the different IV between PET bottle grade and PET thermoform grade, which makes for differences in the way things “fly” and “melt” while being repossessed.
Okay… this seems complicated but not that complicated. I know from previous conversations with Robert that most cities in California accept and recycle plastics 1-7 because of the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which requires local governments to reach a 50% diversion rate. This Act, consequentially, has facilitated the creation of new end markets for these materials post-consumer, which unfortunately, is not the case here.
Do we need to have legislation enacted to provide the motivation to find an end market for mixed rigid plastic containers and packages?
I then received the following email from Robert, which was very much needed in this time of defeat:
Chandler,
Try not to be discouraged. These things take a long time to sort through and creating markets for materials is challenging to say the least! There isn’t just an answer out there waiting to be found. These things need to be teased into existence. They need people (like you) to keep stoking the fire, prodding things along, and creating pressure. Keep at it and you’ll come up with something that’ll work. Maybe it’ll be a few things…at first…small scale. Then maybe one will take off.
The thing about recyclers is that they like what they know (even with Starbucks, they’re facing lots of concerns from recyclers accepting their cups with corrugated). They know PET bottles…so they’re nervous about anything else. Even if it were exactly the same they’d be nervous…so it’d be a matter of either proving through massive testing that it will work the same, or going for another grade of plastic. If you created a new grade of plastic material with its own unique specifications, then everybody would know what to expect from the start. Now…you’d have to have somebody lined up who can use that plastic… It’s a bit of a paradox really…you can’t collect/bale the plastic if there’s nobody to buy/use it, but nobody is going to buy/use it unless there’s a good, steady supply of the stuff with consistent specifications…
Also, PLA will not degrade in the landfill; it requires a commercial composting facility.
Have you considered moving away from single-use thermoformed containers and into more durable containers? Can you make durable containers with the same process? More and more places are feeling the push both from regulators and the public to go green…some are doing it through switching to PLA, some go to cornstarch, and some are going to reusables. Eat-in facilities rather than take-out. Options to fill customer’s dishes with food rather than their own single-use containers. Or even the concept that’s being used with some food manufacturers (deli meats come to mind) where they sell their food product in a container that can be used again and again at home for leftovers…not for refilling its original product…but reused nonetheless..
Well, I’ve rambled on long enough! Don’t give up!!! We need people like you in industry!!
Robert
What a guy! Tune in tomorrow for more about recycling in America!