Sourcing Post Consumer Resin: Six Considerations

In fact, among companies in those segments, nearly half say post consumer recycled resin is playing a significant role in their sustainable packaging strategies, according to Jabil&#;s recent study . Consumer packaged goods companies have a strong tendency (64%) to incorporate post consumer material and other recycled content as part of their product-level initiatives. Download the full survey report.

EcoPlas contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.

Ask many of the world's leading brands about their sustainable packaging plans and they will tell you: they aim to make their packaging 100% reusable or recyclable by . More specifically, many plan to source post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials&#;such as post consumer recycled resin&#;to get there. This sentiment is echoed across the entire landscape of food and beverage , as well as personal and home care segments.

While post consumer recycled resin seems to be the leading option to accomplish packaging sustainability in the industry, there are several considerations to make when sourcing PCR material:

1) How can I be sure my company is using 100% post consumer plastic?    

There are four main plastics used in packaging: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Currently, high density polyethylene (HDPE) and PET recycling are more common than others. The infrastructure is built to support the collection of these materials and many CPGs lead initiatives to educate consumers to recycle. PP is readily recyclable but needs more infrastructure and education around the material. Finally, PS is also recyclable as it is extremely tolerant to &#;re-melting,&#; but its collection presents difficulties due to its form factor.  

Certain plastics are like oil and water&#;they don&#;t mix well. The contamination caused by their mixing, or worse yet, the addition of other factors (such as food, dirt, or other contaminants) can render the resins very difficult to reuse. The makeup of the post consumer resins can be a big obstacle in the industry&#;s endeavor to achieve a truly circular economy, which is a critical piece for packaging sustainability. 

In addition, based on your company&#;s performance requirements of the product, the mixing of the materials can lead to further complications in achieving goals. Almost 60% of European plastics converting companies find it &#;hard&#; or &#;very hard&#; to reuse plastic scrap due to contamination, according to a European Plastics Converters Association study. 

Then how can you ensure 100% purity for packaging materials? 

The first step is to establish a set of recycled material goals for your product. Then, you need to partner with your supplier to evaluate and understand their sources and supply chain. They must have the appropriate quality controls and tests in place to ensure the material supplied meets your product&#;s specifications. 

Therefore, it is imperative that you have full visibility into your supplier ecosystem and a strong understanding of how the post-consumer recycled plastic was sourced, processed and produced.

2) Does the PCR resin comply with regulations?    

Not every type of recycled resin works for every use case or complies with applicable regulations. 

In the United States, the FDA has guidelines for the use of recycled plastics in food packaging. Specifically, they have three concerns that:

• Contaminants from the recycled material may end up in the food packaging
• Non-regulated post-consumer materials may make their way into food packaging
• Adjuvants in the recycled materials may not comply with food-contact regulations

Europe has more stringent guidelines. Under a regulation set over a decade ago, only &#;food-contact materials and articles that contain recycled plastic obtained from an authorized recycling process&#; may be used in the EU. 

It is very likely that in the future more industry standards will be developed, and perhaps also government regulation, to ensure the material really is what it should be. Brands once again can partner with governments worldwide to help shape regulation and drive post consumer recycled content forward.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Post-Consumer Plastic Reuse.

Over the long term, this area will become more like medicine or food&#;when we go to a grocery or drug store, we hardly ever think about whether the medicine or food is &#;good&#; or &#;safe.&#; We rely on the system in the background which ensures that it is. 

3) Where can I find steady sources of high-quality PCR resin?

Finding a steady source of high-quality post consumer recycled plastic is a difficult endeavor today. Consumers are not yet recycling enough plastic waste worldwide&#;which drastically impacts the supply. The reasons vary from geographically different regulations to the additional cost customers must occasionally incur to recycle. Furthermore, while many understand the importance of recycling, many are also confused on how to properly do it. 

With such high demand for recycled materials, brands and packaging integrators must treat the sourcing of these resins as a partnership with their supplier, rather than a transactional exchange. Unlike sourcing virgin material, brands, converters and suppliers must work as a team and make the proper investments to build a viable infrastructure. Sometimes, that means launching community initiatives.

PepsiCo, for example, recognizes the importance of bringing all stakeholders together. To support the development of packaging sustainability, they launched PepsiCo Recycling, an initiative to improve plastics recycling infrastructure and raise awareness on the issue worldwide. With their partnerships through the program, they&#;ve provided recycling access to 33 million households across 700 communities in the U.S. since , collecting more than 115 million pounds of plastic bottle and recyclables.  

These types of partnerships and investments can help you reach your sustainable packaging goals while making a big difference for the environment. Watch Jabil's documentary: The Sustainable Packaging Revolution for a better understanding of how integrators like Jabil, KW Plastics and Danimer Scientific are bringing innovative packaging solutions to the market.

4) How can my company contribute to a steadier supply of recycled materials?

While long-term partnerships and investments into the larger ecosystem will help to ensure a steady supply of post-consumer recycled resins, end-of-life must be addressed at the very beginning with product design. As it stands currently, approximately 30 percent of plastic packaging will never be reused or recycled without fundamental redesign or innovation, according to the World Economic Forum.

The current recycling infrastructure needs an overhaul, but brands can design their packages to optimize recyclability while working within the boundaries of the current infrastructure. This can be accomplished in different ways, such as making components out of a single polymer family, tethering a cap to a bottle or by minimizing how the packaging is assembled so it can be easily separated when necessary.

When designing product packaging, end-of-life must be top-of-mind. Otherwise, your company is contributing to the same problem it&#;s trying to overcome. 

Written by PJ

Reduce, reuse, recycle&#;these are three words that are quickly becoming a part of everyday conversation. With growing concerns over climate change and our almost daily consumption of single-use plastics, sustainability has been a hot-button issue over the past years.

Whether you're planning to switch from plastic carriers to reusable bags or single-use straws to their metal and bamboo alternatives, more and more of us want to do our bit to help the environment. 
 
Plastics are often considered the primary culprit when it comes to our waste, but you might be surprised to hear that many of the plastic items you find throughout the home are recyclable and can be used time and again.

As the summer holidays are on the horizon, many of us are trying to think of new strategies to keep our kids entertained while they are home from school.

It can be hard to provide fun activities for them to do every day, but we&#;ve come up with one project that your kids are sure to love!

In our Bored Kids Series we are going to look at HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), one of the most used and easily recycled plastics in the home. 

We will explain how to find HDPE throughout the home, how to prepare it for reuse, how to safely melt it at home, and finally, how to reuse it and make something useful!


What is HDPE?
 
HDPE is a thermoplastic made from petroleum and one of the most versatile plastic materials currently in use today. It is used both in and outside the home to make a range of different products, including reusable plastic bottles, and food containers. HDPE also has some more niche applications: for instance, it is used to manufacture snowboards and in plastic surgery! 
 
What makes HDPE so popular is its malleability and long lifespan.

HDPE can easily be melted down at home and on an industrial scale, so it can be used again and again for different applications. It is also easy to work with and can be moulded in almost any shape.

HDPE is corrosion resistant too, making it a perfect material for storage containers. 
 
You can find HDPE throughout your home, and it can be melted down and reformed&#;without the need for any specialist equipment. It can be easily recognised by it's recycling sign with number 2 inside the three-arrow symbol.





So, if you are looking to save some money and lower your carbon footprint, read on to find out what home items you can easily melt down and use to create your very own home storage and décor items! 

This is also a great activity to do with young kids over the summer holidays!
 

Where can you find HDPE in the home? 
 
Bathroom 
 

• Shampoo and conditioner bottles 
• Shower gel bottles 
• Bleach bottles and other detergent bottles 

 
Kitchen 
 

• Reusable plastic water bottles
• Chopping boards
• Food storage containers 
• Plastic jam and peanut butter jars
• Condiment bottles
• Yoghurt pots
• Juice cartons
• Milk jugs and bottle caps 
• Waste and recycling bins 
• Cereal box liner/packaging
• Grocery bags 
• Plastic cutlery and crockery 
• Spray and cooking oils 

 
Outdoors
 

• Garden signage 
• Flowerpots and planters
• Patio furniture 
• Playground equipment
• Compost bins 

 
Other home items
 

• Children&#;s toys
• Pipe systems 
• Plastic hinges
• Some pill/tablet bottles 

Preparation 
 
Before you can begin melting your plastic, you need to prepare the HDPE materials&#;
 

• Begin by cleaning all your plastic items and removing any food, grease, or anything else that might be lingering. You should also remove all labels and glue from the HDPE product. 
• You might need to clean some items in hot water multiple items to ensure that they are clean. Some HDPE items might remain sticky due to the glue used to adhere labels to their surface&#;it&#;s best to avoid using these pieces. 

 
Shredding 
 
Once all your HDPE home items are clean and dry, you can consider whether you need to shred them into smaller pieces. Professionally, HDPE is always turned into pellets before it is melted and reformed, but if you are only working with small products such as milk caps, you can skip this step. 
 
To shred HDPE at home you can&#;
 

• Cut the HDPE products up into as small pieces as possible (aim for 1cm pieces) using kitchen scissors. This is a time-consuming, but foolproof method!
• Alternatively, you can run small, thin sheets of HDPE through a paper shredder. This is a faster process, but after a while, you are likely to burn out and break your shredder so keep this in mind. 

That just about brings us to the end of this blog on HDPE items you can find throughout the home.

Now you have collected and prepared the HDPE items ready for recycling, you are ready for Part 2 of our Bored Kids Series, How to Melt HDPE Down for Reuse at Home - coming next week!

&#;You can find a range of
 

Before you can begin melting your plastic, you need to prepare the HDPE materials&#;Once all your HDPE home items are clean and dry, you can consider whether you need to shred them into smaller pieces. Professionally, HDPE is always turned into pellets before it is melted and reformed, but if you are only working with small products such as milk caps, you can skip this step.To shred HDPE at home you can&#;That just about brings us to the end of this blog on HDPE items you can find throughout the home.Now you have collected and prepared the HDPE items ready for recycling, you are ready for Part 2 of our Bored Kids Series, How to Melt HDPE Down for Reuse at Home - coming next week!&#;You can find a range of cut-to-size plastics and recycled plastics in our store. Use our online calculator to get an instant quote today!

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Is PCR Plastic Recyclable. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.