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Hello! Sorry I didn’t post yesterday! I am now a new resident of the West Loop, Chicago. Moving yesterday was a total debacle: movers came early, I didn’t have enough boxes, I got lost on the way to my new place and ended up too far West for one’s own good, and then I got locked out of my new place and had to call a lock smith. Fun times…

Well I’m back and ready to talk about recycling in America!

Where were we?

Two days later I arrived to the office anticipating the results of our RPET samples’ “test” to determine if our RPET is “read” like bottle-grade PET. Here’s the thinking: If our RPET moves through the MRF’s optical sorting technology like PET bottles, then we would have some leverage to approach our suppliers of post consumer regrind PET with and suggest they accept bales of PET bottles with our RPET thermoforms in the mix. It’s worth a shot, right? I swear, as this recycling initiative moves forward it keeps changing. For those of you who are new to my blog or have not followed the narrative, these are some possible solutions to finding a way to recycle thermoformed packaging:

1. Integrate our RPET thermoforms into the existing PET bottle recycling infrastructure. This is large scale and regionally a-specific.
2. Work with our supplier of PCR PET to create a pilot program that works as follows:

• We would work with WM to designate a bale for PET bottles AND RPET thermoforms (either just our packages, so we could certify the integrity of the resin feedstock, or all RPET thermoforms, which may get a little messy depending on which domestic/international markets said material is originating from);
• This bale would sit at WM collecting PET bottles and RPET thermoforms until full;
• This mixed bale of RPET thermoforms and PET bottles would be purchased by our material supplier who would clean, grind, and extrude the mixed bale to create sheets for us to thermoform;
• We would ensure that we would buy this mixed thermoform and bottle-grade RPET sheet, providing security for the material supplier to engage in this initiative;
• We would test this mixed sheet with our machines and see what the output is.

1. Create a new end market for low-grade, mixed rigid plastic packaging, as is the case in some communities on the East and West coasts where all plastic, once the PET bottles and HDPE jugs are removed for recycling, are collected for reprocessing. Sometimes this reprocessing manifests itself in lumber applications and sometimes this low-grade plastic mix is sold to international markets for WTE or perhaps feedstock for resin production.

So yeah…don’t really know what the best approach is…any suggestions?

Now that we have recapped, let us return to December 1^st, 2009.

Upon arrival to the office I shot my contact at WM the following email:

Good day!

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend.

I just wanted to drop you a quick email inquiring into the status of our samples’ analysis via optical sorting. At your earliest convenience, please let me know if you have received the status of said analysis.

Thanks again for your time; I owe you lunch!

Best,

Chandler Slavin

Later that day I received the following response:

Hi Chandler,

Thanks for the note, yes, it was a nice Holiday break. I will reach out to my contact and our Grayslake plant manager this week to see if there's any update. The big issue as I think you know is on the buyer's end....even if WM can accept and sort your PET material, the buyer's of PET typically only recover the bottle grades, any other plastic is typically discarded. 

TICK TOCK.

Tune in tomorrow to learn more about recycling in America!

Happy Monday Funday! Sorry I didn’t post on Friday—I actually had a presentation at one of our customers’ company about packaging and sustainability and then I got sick! My tongue was green and had these giant balls at the back of the throat, which was super weird. It turns out I have had a low-grade infection for two weeks, ug! This working full time+moving+having a social life is really starting to take its toll. I got quite the lecture from my boss/father about “burning the candle at both ends” so basically if I miss another day because I am sick I get in super duper trouble. Yikes!

Shall we resume our recycling narrative?

Several days later I received an email from Robert Carlson of the CA EPA:

Chandler,

I may or may not have mentioned to you that my wife is a career counselor and she does some work with “Green Careers”. Well, she is doing something right now about “infusing green” into your job. Basically what to do to make what is typically not a “Green” job into a green job.

I thought of you, an account executive at a plastics manufacturing company working to green the company! Perfect fit, right? Plus I thought you told me that you sort of created the position of sustainability director yourself…So how much more “take charge” can you get, right?

Anyway, she may be contacting you to ask you a few questions about how you went about it, things you thought worked well and things you found challenging (or something…I’m not really sure where she’ll be going) if that’s alright.

Wow! Rad! Someone wants to interview me about my work at Dordan? SPLENDID!

I spoke with Robert’s wife later that day; she is a doll!

Hey!

I just got off the phone with your wife; she has a lovely phone personality! Our conversation got cut off, however, as my phone interviewed called in. I asked if she wanted me to provide her with an abstract, per se, of our conversation and she agreed. The email she provided, however, may not actually be her email, as it sort of got jumbled in the end. If you could see that she gets the following abstract, I would really appreciate it.

How Dordan is “infusing” green into our company:

I work for a mid-western based, custom-design thermoformer of plastic non-food packaging. Currently, no plastic packaging is recycled in the US, aside from PET beverage bottles. I am working with various contacts at WM to find an end-of-life market for our plastic packaging materials. This is an on-going effort, and having spoken with the Environmental Director at Starbucks who implemented a pilot recycling program for their paper cups in several NY Starbucks’ stores, I am finding it increasingly difficult to create a new recycling market, as the economics don’t seem to support it. In other words, there are many people one needs to get on board to ensure a new end-of-market for materials not currently recycled, and I don’t believe that we have the power to make those various players participate without some kind of incentive on their part. Regardless, I am committed to finding a way to reuse or recycled our plastic packages. It can be done; it just has not been done. Hopefully through the vehicle of supply chain collaboration we will be able to create either a new market for our packages post-consumer or integrate our PET packages into the existing PET bottle recycling infrastructure.

I am also working with various representatives from greenerpackage.com in regard to their packaging supplier database, which is intended to eliminate green-washing. I feel as though this web-site is committed to sustainability in packaging and I look forward to my continued involvement with them.

I persuaded my company to become a subscriber to the Sustainable Packaging Coalitions’ comparative LCA assessment tool COMPASS, which has legitimate, third-party peer reviewed LCIA data for various packaging materials, conversion processes, and end-of-life treatment. This tool allows us to determine the green house gas emissions, fossil fuel consumption, etc. of packaging, therefore informing our engineering/R&D teams with the data necessary to design packages that have less of a burden on the environment than packages currently on the market.

Our manufacturing facility has made various sustainable efforts to reduce our processes burden on the environment. One such effort concerns revamping the lights in our factory to consume less energy that the previous lighting. We also regrind our own scrap and sell it back to our material suppliers. I am also investigating a grant for wind-power.

I got my degree in religious ethics with a concentration in social justice and ethics from DePaul University, which has informed how I understand/interpret claims of ethical considerations via the environment. While at times it is discouraging to discover peoples’? true motivation for making green claims, there are those who are genuinely committed to being “green,” outside of any capitalistic endeavor (as in the case with your husbandJ). I hope I did not come off too cynical; I just want to emphasize while everyone wants to do better by the environment, few are willing to pay for it themselves.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions or comments, please do not hesitate to ask. I hope you are enjoying your job as a career counselor, even in these difficult times.

Best,

Chandler Slavin

Well that was fun!

Tune in tomorrow to learn more about recycling in America!

Helllllloooooo world!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Chicago was crazy with the Chi-Irish! I left my apartment Saturday afternoon to discover that my street had been taken over by rowdy drunks…good times!

Shall we resume our recycling narrative?

Today’s the day, I remember thinking when I arrived to the office: Today I finally get my much-anticipated phone interview with the Environmental Director of Starbucks about the pilot recycling program he implemented for Starbuck’s coffee cups in several NY stores!!!

Here goes nothing; deep breath.

Ring, ring…

…Thirty minutes later…

Phew. I can stop sweating now. He was super nice, I thought to myself as I looked over the notes I took. While it was still fresh, I compiled the information and sent my team the following email:

Hey guys,

I just got off the phone with the Environmental Director of Starbucks; he was really cool and very insightful. This is what I learned:

1. Starbucks found a university that creates the standards for corrugated boxes. They then tested their cups with the corrugated to see if it had a positive or neutral effect on the fiber. To their delight, the university determined that the cups actually yield a positive value on the fiber feedstock because of its high quality composition. In other words, the cups strengthened the OTC.
2. They then found Pratt Industries, which is a cardboard manufacturer from Australia who is trying to make in inlet into the North American market, to process their cups with the corrugated material.
3. They made a donation to Global Green, which is an NGO who created the CORR project, which looks to reclaim corrugated material. Upon their contribution, they had access to all of their research and contacts within various municipalities.
4. From there they set up a store trial, where they had their customers separate the cup from the lid, to be collected in the warehouse of a MRF until the quantity necessary to find an end market accumulated. Their customers were happy to do this because they have been asking for this for a while.
5. They focused on expanding the existing OCC recycling infrastructure, not creating a new market or closed loop system. They opted for the OCC market because most communities have access to these programs because corrugated is one if the mostly recycled fiber materials (OCC market as opposed to the mixed paper waste market, which is much more regionally specific, as is the case with the markets for mixed plastic waste that reside predominantly on the East and West coasts for shipment to Asia for energy recovery via incineration).
6. They then plan to use the pilot project as a case study for why more buyers of OCC from MRFs should accept Starbucks cups on the bales.
7. They held a cup summit and because of their large pull in the market place, were able to invite powerful players in various municipalities, resin manufacturers (Dow), retailers, MRFs, etc. to create a momentum that cities would like to tap into for their own PR initiatives (municipalities compete with how much material they are saving from landfills i.e. “zero waste” PR).

*Basically, if there is enough volume of any reclaimed material, there can be an end market for it. This implies that we must collaborate with North American manufacturers of thermoformed non-food plastic packaging in order to find the quantity necessary to find a buyer for the end-of-life market.

I know this is not on the top of our list of priorities, but it is a good long-term goal. Until the market picks up, however, I find it difficult to imagine that our competitors would want to engage in this type of recycling initiative. Moreover, we are not Starbucks, so spear-heading something like this on altruism alone probably won’t take us very far. I honestly think that collaboration is the way to go…

We are still waiting to hear back the results from the MRF to see if our RPET is compatible with the PET bottles via optical sorting, If so, we have already tackled one of the components of the above ?approach. I think that we should continue to find ways to enhance the existing infrastructure; all we need is collaboration to produce the quantity necessary to find an end-market for it.

I’ll keep you posted!

Chandler

Tune in Wednesday to learn more about recycling in America!

Happy Monday! I am already on my second cup of joe and not feeling too perky. Ug! I hope everyone is feeling a little more motivated than I…

Shall we resume our recycling narrative?

The next day I arrived to find an email waiting from Robert Carlson of the CA EPA. This is in response to the email I sent updating him on the status of my clamshell recycling initiative. It is jammed packed with goodness so enjoy! Thanks Robert!

Chandler,

First I wanted to address the issue of collecting rigid plastics for recycling (providing the source for PVC contamination). I’m not terribly aware of the recycling infrastructure in your part of the country, but here in California, most jurisdictions do in fact accept mixed plastics. A lot of jurisdictions moved away from the 3-bin system which often took only beverage containers to a single-stream approach to recycling where you dump all recyclables into a single bin and it’s sorted at the MRF. Where I live, the city picks up 1-7 plastics of any kind for recycling then sorts later. So…this situation is one that would introduce a PVC bottle or clamshell into a stream where it could be confused for PET or some other plastic for that matter (even paper). Also, if there are commercial recycling centers/retail bins etc…an errant PVC container may find its way into the bin and be sent with the rest for recycling. Some of the plastics that are collected do get separated and disposed of, but others are sent to be recycled as a low-grade plastic mixture that’s often used in plastic lumber applications where it’s mixed with sawdust or something and used for fencing or benches or sometimes decking.

Second, you idea about having consumers separate their goods from its packaging before they leave the store and deposit it into appropriate bins for recycling is a good one. It is in fact being done in Europe and I believe parts of Canada (don’t quote me on that) where they have EPR programs in place. If you do in fact pursue that option I would LOVE to follow it since it’s an approach that we think would allow a high level of recovery while maintaining a clean stream. BUT of course it introduces the problem of financing and retail acceptance (they don’t always want to put bins in their stores…particularly in the front where everybody can see them) not to mention changing the consumer’s behavior to unwrap their product in the store instead of at home where they are accustomed to doing it. The other issue I’ve heard is related to returns (often you’re required to return the product in its original packaging). Not that these are issues that can’t be addressed, but they would need to be though about and dealt with somehow. Again…VERY exciting and if you go that way, I’d love to watch or be more involved somehow.

Third, as I think I’ve mentioned before, Pyrolosis may be the best option for you and if it works and meets your goals and expectations, then by all means pursue it. It’s not really an option for us (in California) right now, but who’s to say what will happen in the future? Keep me updated on it if you go that direction.

Fourth, your assumption that your PET clamshells should be compatible with the PET bottle stream is correct. If you could somehow guarantee a certain level of cleanliness (both free of food/product contamination as well as free from various other resin contamination) then it should in fact be compatible. From what I understand, Starbucks first had a University test the recycling process of corrugated containers with their cups and proved that they did in fact work. Then they started piloting the project, collecting the cups and sending them to be mixed into a real-life recycler with corrugated. The recycler is then sending samples of the finished board for testing to be sure it meets the same specs as recycled board with NO cups. This recycler though is known for being able to take and separate ANYTHING so they may not work for everybody, but it’s a foot in the door. People can see that it can be done and it won’t degrade the product. Then it’s a matter of finding the contamination level that other recyclers are comfortable with and making the stream clean enough for them (that’s the next step). If you were collecting at retail, you’d have some control over stream cleanliness. Of course, if PVC were banned…it’s help your cause immensely as well as you’d no longer have to deal with recyclers worrying about PVC messing up the clamshell stream.

I’m busy dealing with synthetic turf field issues and recycled paper issues at the moment, plus of course my usual EPR related issues. Meetings, reports, dealing with lobbyists!! My life is busy in a boring way!!

Whew!!! That was a marathon of an email, huh?!?! 

We’ll have to chat again soon, but maybe next time parceled out into smaller portions. I’m a number of years out of college and not as mentally nimble as you are anymore!! God…getting old at 30! That’s terrible!!

Maybe if you have any specific questions about any of these topics, we can get together on the phone so that we can discuss a bit more casually rather than having to get everything down in an email.

Take care…gotta go to yoga now and relax my brain for a few moments!

Robert

Tune in tomorrow for some feedback from the Environmental Director of Starbucks! Good luck getting through the rest of the day!

Cheers!

Its sunny today, which in Chicago in March is no small feat!

Sorry if today’s post seems repetitive…if you hadn’t noticed, I am trying to describe my attempts at finding an end-of-life market for thermoformed packaging as a story, a narrative of sorts, which moves chronologically through time on the vehicle of email exchanges between myself and others in the plastics, sustainability, and recycling industries. I realized that I had omitted an email exchange between myself and Robert Carlson of the CA EPA from November 16^th, so I edited yesterday’s post to be more “real.”

Because Robert with the CA EPA seemed extra-curious about what I meant by “I have so much to tell you,” I sent him the following email upon my arrival to the office on November 17^th:

Hey Robert,

So here’s the update on everything:

I have been talking with various people in WM, SPI, SPC, etc. to determine what the feasibility is of establishing: (1) either a new end market for mixed rigid plastic packages or, (2) integrating our RPET packages (non-food) into the existing PET bottle recycling infrastructure.

In regard to the former option: This seems more difficult to implement in the near future because the quantity is not there, as is the case with PET bottles. Moreover, because of all the different materials in various kinds of plastic packaging (food, medical, consumer goods), it is difficult to collect enough of any one material to find an end market for it. At the same time, however, I am cooking up an idea where we would form a partnership with a retailer in order to provide them with guidelines for all plastic packaging. Our guidelines would dictate that all plastic packages sold at this retailer would have to be of the same type of material, in order to establish the quantity necessary to find an end market for it. We could even go so far as to require customers to open their consumer goods’ packages in store and place the plastic and paper components into collection bins, to be hauled away by a contracted third-party. I believe they do this at some European retail chains. I am trying to find more information on the logistics of this approach.

There is also the option to “down-cycle” as you put it. I have a dialogue going with a rep from Polyflow who explained that they would buy mixed rigid and flexible plastic packaging, with or without food contamination, and convert it to gasoline diesel fuels. I have attached a white paper from Polyflow, which discusses its capabilities. Apparently, the cost to landfill is comparable to the cost to process this unwanted material in the Polyflow facility. I know you explained why this option is seen as less superior to recycling but I believe that this may be a better option for the polymer industry, especially as new additives and materials emerge on the market. Please see the attached sheet, if interested, and let me know what you think of this as an option for waste management.

In regard to the second option: As you alluded to, PVC packages are a problem because they contaminate the PET waste stream. I received a similar perceptive from an anonymous non-profit, who explained that plastic packages, even if PET or RPET, are not recycled because of the possibility of having a PVC package get into the bale. What I don’t understand, however, is where are mixed rigid packages even collected for recycling where the PVC contamination would be an issue? My rep at WM explained that buyers of baled PET bottles don’t want plastic packages (clamshells) in the bales because the possibility that one may be PVC. This, however, implies that there could be a market for rigid plastic packages (PET, RPET) outside of the PET bottle recycling infrastructure. Do you know where or by whom mixed rigid plastic packages are collected for recycling?

Currently, I have sent out 50 RPET clamshell samples to my contact at WM to run through their optical sorting technology to see if our RPET material is compatible with the PET bottle material (same IVs and what not). If so, we could maybe find a buyer of a mixed bale of PET bottles and RPET plastic packages (non food). After all, we have certification from our suppliers that our RPET has a minimum 70% recycled content (from PET bottles); therefore, one would assume that our material would be very similar to the PET bottle material and as such, have an end market because the quantity is already there, we are just adding to it. Moreover, if we can ensure that our plastic packages are compatible with the PET bottle material, we may be able to have our material supplier buy the mixed baled PET bottles and RPET packages to be reground and sold back to us, thus being closed loop.

I am still waiting to talk with the Environmental Director at Starbucks in regard to how the buyers of baled corrugate are dealing with the introduction of a new material (coffee cups). I believe we have a similar situation with buyers of baled PET bottles—they don’t want to introduce a new type of product (RPET clams, blisters, etc.) into their collection protocol.

We also just subscribed to COMPASS, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s comparative life cycle packaging assessment tool, which allows us to see the environmental ramifications of our material choices in the design phase; cool beans!

AND, I am kicking off a new marketing campaign for Dordan for 2010—I’ll keep you posted!

So that’s that. How are things with you? What is making you so busy?

Best,

Chandler Slavin

Tune in tomorrow to see where my recycling initiative takes me next!

On November 16^th I received the following email from my contact at Waste Management, confirming receipt of our RPET samples:

Chandler,

I received the samples to run through our optical sorting technology. I will send them out for analysis and be back in touch in a few weeks.

Grooooovy. A few weeks…yikes! The suspense is already killing me!

While I contemplated waiting for “a few weeks” to continue moving forward with our recycling initiative, I sent Robert the following email, inquiring into his opinion about PVC, a thermoplastic that we form.

Hey Robert,

What is your stance on PVC? I know that that is a loaded question, but I run into contradictory information all the time. For instance, below is an article on Dr. Patrick Moore, a Co-founder of Greenpeace, who left the organization because it’s increasingly radical stance on chlorine in all its forms and derivatives. He says that PVC is a good material in specific applications and I can infer that the language on greenpeace.com (“PVC is a poison throughout its entire lifecycle”) is extremely reductionistic. What is your stance on greenpeace? Do you have any contacts there who may be able to provide insight into their harsh stance on PVC, and plastics in general. Moreover, a lot of their experts specialize in the protection of forests from the pulp and paper industries around the world; would they have information on the timber industry that may provide a counter-argument to language like “dino plastic” used by bloggers on greenpeace.com?

Gosh, I know you’re busy. Please take your time and respond at your earliest convenience. Perhaps we should establish a question quota per week? Ha!

See the article and link below for more info.

Best,

Chandler

Greenpeace Co-founder Praises Benefits of Vinyl Products in New Video

Dr. Patrick Moore, the co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace, advises students and professionals to apply critical thinking when investigating the properties of materials, and praises the use of vinyl as a sustainable and safe material in a new video.

This story appears on www.vinylnewsservice.com.

For a direct link to the article and video, go to: http://vinylnewsservice.com/MainMenu/News/LatestVNSNews/Environment/BenefitsofVinylProducts.aspx

After lunch that day I received this email from Robert:

Chandler,

I haven’t forgotten about you…I just had two major issues come at me over the last week or so and haven’t been able to do anything else. Ill try to get something to you next week sometime.

Rats…I then shot back the following email:

Hey,

No worries my friend; I assumed you were busy. Well, shoot me an email when you get a second—I have so much to tell you!

And to my surprised, a half an hour later I received this from Robert:

Chandler,

I’m still a bit busy but know if I don’t get back to you now, I’ll likely forget forever!? Plus I want to know about the “so much to tell you!”

I know rather little about greenpeace.org unfortunately so I can’t comment on the organization.

Regarding PVC, I’m no expert but I do know that it poses health risks at various points in its lifecycle particularly if it’s incinerated. PVC also has a terrible habit of ruining bales of other material if it’s not caught in the sorting phase (I’ve heard as little as 0.1% PVC is enough to ruin a batch of PET.) We do have a plastics expert here at the Board, his name is Edgar Rojas. If you’d like to ask him about PVC you can send him an email at (contact wishes to remain anonymous).

PVC seems to be on the chopping block every legislative session with a bill to ban it every year it seems. Obviously it’s never been passed, but there is always concern over the material, particularly in food-contact applications. PVC and PS are the two plastics that come under fire most often for their toxicity and environmental/human health effects. I don’t know what the results will be once all the science is gathered to find the true full lifecycle effects of these materials in various applications, but from what I see it doesn’t look particularly good.

Ok…your turn…

Ha!

Tune in tomorrow to learn more about recycling in America.

The next day I arrived to the office full of enthusiasm; I had brought my favorite lunch—penne puntanesca and garlic bread—which ensured that no one in the office would want to talk to me for the duration of the afternoon. Silence is golden. ;)

After establishing that NAPCOR was super cool but a little outside our means at this time, I found another industry group dedicated to the use and recycling of plastics: APR stands for the Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers. Like NAPCOR, they represent those in the industry that work with post consumer plastics. Their website reads:

Our goal is simple-we want to increase the amount of plastic material that is recycled in North America. We do that by sponsoring education workshops and ‘webinars’ designed to help local and state solid waste officials learn more about the technology of plastics recycling and the markets for material; holding design for recyclability workshops for packaging professionals; working to assist legislators to make decisions that enhance the recycling of plastics; and numerous other market development and technical programs.

RADICAL… I sent a letter of inquiry to the email provided:

Hello,

My name is Chandler Slavin—I am the Sustainability Coordinator at Dordan Manufacturing, which is a Midwestern based, national supplier of custom thermoformed solutions. We source post consumer RPET for manufacturing our packages and are currently investigating recycling options for the end-of-life management of our products. After visiting your web-site I am interested in your association and would like to know the process of applying for membership and also the advantages of being a member. Are any thermoform members in the APR?

Thank you for your time and I look forward to speaking with you soon!

Best,

Chandler Slavin

In a previous post I described a conversation I had with a representative from the SPI (plastics industry trade association); I discussed her desire to help increase the recycling rates of plastic packaging but emphasized her underlining understanding of economics and how such economics did not support such an initiative. During this conversation I suggested that the SPI revisit the resin ID numbers currently prescribed to different polymers used in plastic packaging in order to account for the introduction of PLA into the stream and make recycling of plastics easier. She subsequently indicated that a subcommittee was formed that year to address these concerns and indicated that she would follow up with me about their approach.

To my surprised, that day I received a follow-up email from this contact:

Hi Chandler,

Thanks so much for the call earlier and the great conversation. Sounds like you have your hands full with issues surrounding sustainability, “green-washing”, recycling, bio-resins, additives, resin identification code, Wal-mart Scorecard, and the ultimate goal of reclaiming all your clamshell packaging. These issues are being addressed in our processors council and materials supplier council predominantly.

I have touched base with our sales director in the Midwest. He will follow up with you to give you a better sense of the issues, including the above, that we are involved with on behalf of industry. And, certainly I am available as well.

Hurray; another bread crumb! Processors council and materials supplier council, eh? Time to do more research!

After lunch that day, I got a call from the Midwestern sales director of the SPI. He was really cool, and although he wasn’t totally versed in sustainability issues, he listened to what I had to say and told me he would put me in touch with someone at SPI that would be more of a help to me and my inquiries.

Splendid.

Ironically, later that day, just as I was assembling my things to catch the train back to Chicago, I received the following email:

Dear Plastics Industry Professional,

On September 23, 2009, ASTM International's D20.95 subcommittee on Recycled Plastics distributed a new draft subcommittee ballot on the resin identification codes to its membership. There are 18 new items being balloted as part of the draft, which will update the original system developed in 1988 by SPI. Members of the D20.95 subcommittee are eligible to vote on the draft until its closing date on October 23, 2009. SPI is strongly encouraging all members of D20.95 to review and vote on this ballot.

Huh…so the SPI is reconsidering the resin ID numbers; that’s great! Although the language of this email is a little ambiguous, at least they are being proactive about these issues. I wonder how I get involved…

Just before I walked out the door, I sent the sales director of the SPI this follow-up email:

Hey,?

?I just wanted to send you a quick email to follow up with our phone conversation today. First, thank you for taking the time to talk with me about my concerns regarding the plastic packaging industry. As per our conversation, I was wondering if there were any contacts at your association who would like to have a dialogue with me about issues pertaining to sustainability and the plastic packaging industry. Aside from the millennial campaign and discussions about adding to the SPI resin identification number family, what else is SPI doing to confront the challenges facing our industry? How is SPI working to save the reputation of the plastic industry? What kind of initiatives is SPI taking to increase the sustainability profile of plastics? Is SPI considering different material recovery technologies or recycling programs?

As per our conversation, I have spent a considerable amount of time researching issues pertaining to plastic and sustainability. If there is anyone I could talk with, or would appreciate talking to me at SPI or one of its sister organizations, please let me know. ?

Thanks!

Chandler

Tune in tomorrow for more recycling in America tidbits; good times!