South Heidelberg Township, PA to Join “Pilot Program” for Recycling Flexible Plastic Packaging

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Local waste company J. P. Mascaro & Sons announced that as part of its contract for the curbside collection of recyclables, South Heidelberg Township residents, in connection with an industry-sponsored recycling “Pilot Program”, will now be including flexible plastic packaging (FPP) as a recyclable, instead of landfilling that material. J. P. Mascaro & Sons and its TotalRecycle fully-automated single stream recycling facility in Exeter Township, Berks County, are leading an industry innovative “Pilot Program” to demonstrate the viability of processing FPP at automated material recovery facilities and marketing the recycled product, known as r-Flex, to end users.

Historically, FPP (i.e., plastic bags, wraps, pouches, product packaging, etc.), which represents a growing portion of the residential household waste stream, has not been successfully recycled and had to be landfilled. Seeking to process and market FPP as a “recyclable” for the first time, the Materials Recovery for the Future (“MRFF”) industry and association members, including companies such as Dow Chemical, Nestlé Purina, Pepsico, Procter & Gamble, Target, the Association of Plastic Recyclables, the Flexible Packaging Association, the Plastics Industry Association, and the American Chemistry Council, awarded a $2.6 million grant to Mascaro to install sophisticated optical sorting equipment at its TotalRecycle facility to make the recycling of FPP possible.

Collection of FPP as a recyclable will begin in South Heidelberg Township at the end of December, after Mascaro notifies all Township households of the types of FPP that will now be collected as recyclables.  It is expected that the FPP Pilot Program will generate important data to show interested municipalities that FPP recycling is possible and economical, and that there is a market for the rFlex end product.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com