Plastics Recycling 2017: Beyond the buzzwords
TerraCycle Include USA P&G Suez Beach Plastic Shampoo Bottle
Circular economy and sustainable materials management (SMM) are buzzwords that have gained popularity recently; but, as one speaker at Plastics Recycling 2017 said, both concepts have the same goal: creating a reliable supply chain that incorporates recyclables.
Nina Goodrich of GreenBlue and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), Charlottesville, Virginia, said SMM and the circular economy, two approaches to using and reusing materials more productively over their lives, had more similarities than differences. She added that both approaches are concerned with creating a “reliable supply chain from waste.” Goodrich and the other speakers during the session stressed that this would need to be a collaborative process if it was going to be successful.
Stephen Sikra, who is responsible for the development of people, packages and processes at Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G), Cincinnati, said his company’s goals are to use 20 percent less material in its packaging and to double its use of recycled resin in packaging. “We want your PCR (postconsumer recycled resin),” he told attendees.
Sikra added the P&G recognizes that it has a role to play in recycling by designing packaging for recycling, inspiring consumers to recycle, advancing recycling infrastructure and creating demand for PCR.
When it comes to investing in recycling infrastructure, the company is working with the Closed Loop Fund and The Recycling Partnership, he said. Other recycling-related collaborations P&G is involved in include the How2Recycle Label, Materials Recovery for the Future and TerraCycle.
P&G funds recycling programs managed by TerraCycle for packaging that cannot be recycled via curbside programs, Skira said. “TerraCycle is a bridging program until curbside recycling is available for packages that offer better overall sustainability but may not be recyclable at the curbside.”
One of collaborations between P&G and TerraCycle will use plastics collected at beaches to produce the bottles for Head & Shoulders. The bottles will be made from up to 25 percent recycled beach plastic.
P&G, in partnership with TerraCycle and Suez Environnement, based in Paris, will begin the recycling program in France by the middle of this year, producing a limited-edition shampoo bottle. The shampoo will be sold through the retailer Carrefour.