Connecticut joins initiative to increase plastic film recycling
Connecticut joins initiative to increase plastic film recycling
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Photo: Dreamstime
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Washington-based American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Flexible Film Recycling Group (FFRG) has announced a public-private partnership designed to increase opportunities for residents and businesses to recycle flexible film packaging, including consumer and commercial product wraps; bags for groceries, produce and bread; and items such as sealable food storage bags and shipping pillows.
Shari Jackson, director of the FFRG, says, “We are very pleased Connecticut has become a partner of our Wrap Action Recycling Program (WRAP). WRAP will provide tools and best practices to support DEEP’s community outreach and education efforts to increase the recycling of plastic film.”
“Recapturing and recycling more plastic bags and flexible film packaging material will reduce solid waste disposal costs, reduce the contamination of other materials contained in single-stream recycling bins and create jobs right here in Connecticut,” Connecticut DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee says. “This strategy is also one of many action-oriented steps we can take to meet the goal outlined in our draft Comprehensive Materials Management Strategy of increasing the state’s diversion rate to 60 percent by 2024.”
A major focus of the new partnership will be to increase voluntary participation in the recycling of plastic bags, wraps and other film packaging at supermarkets, grocery stores and other retail locations. Encouraging Connecticut’s retailers to offer this opportunity—and building greater public awareness of it—will reduce the volume of plastic bags and film inappropriately deposited in curbside recycling containers, the partners say.
“Cleaning up our single-stream recycling and making our recyclables more marketable is a very high priority,” Klee says. “Plastic bags and other film packaging are recyclable and have real value—just not in our curbside bins.”
He adds, “Residents should bring plastic bags and other polyethylene (PE) film material to participating retailers, such as grocery stores, which have established collection programs to maintain the quality of film for recycling. Our partnership with ACC’s WRAP program will strengthen that recycling network and make more people aware of it.”
Successful WRAP initiatives can be seen in the states of Washington and Wisconsin, which have demonstrated that greater awareness of store drop-off programs helps reduce film contamination in curbside bins and at local materials recovery facilities (MRFs), the ACC says.
In Vancouver, Washington, the WRAP campaign helped to more than double collection of plastic film packaging through return-to-retail recycling programs, according to a new case study conducted with the city of Vancouver’s Environmental Resources Division. The study also found a 75 percent decrease in plastic bag contamination at a local MRF.
A video of Vancouver’s campaign can be viewed here.
Plastic film is one of the fastest growing areas of recycling, with collection growing 79 percent since 2005, ACC says. At least 1.17 billion pounds of postconsumer film were recovered in 2014, and the recycling rate grew to 17 percent.
The FFRG, a collaboration working to double the recycling of postuse PE film by 2020, represents materials suppliers, brand owners, manufacturers and recyclers. In Connecticut, the partners include municipalities, waste authorities, recycling processors, haulers and retailers.
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Source: Recycling Today
Connecticut joins initiative to increase plastic film recycling
<![CDATA[Photo: Dreamstime The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Washington-based American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Flexible Film Recycling Group (FFRG) has announced a public-private partnership designed to increase opportunities for residents and businesses to recycle flexible film packaging, including consumer and commercial product wraps; bags for groceries, produce and bread; and items such as sealable food storage bags and shipping pillows. Shari Jackson, director of the FFRG, says, “We are very pleased Connecticut has become a partner of our Wrap Action Recycling Program (WRAP). WRAP will provide tools and best practices to support DEEP’s community outreach and education efforts to increase the recycling of plastic film.” “Recapturing and recycling more plastic bags and flexible film packaging material will reduce solid waste disposal costs, reduce the contamination of other materials contained in single-stream recycling bins and create jobs right here in Connecticut,” Connecticut DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee says. “This strategy is also one of many action-oriented steps we can take to meet the goal outlined in our draft Comprehensive Materials Management Strategy of increasing the state’s diversion rate to 60 percent by 2024.” A major focus of the new partnership will be to increase voluntary participation in…