Banking on plastics recycling

Plastic Bank, the nonprofit that builds networks in underdeveloped countries to collect and process ocean-bound plastic, turns 10 this year.

Plastic Bank (which was featured in the Summer 2021 edition of Plastics Recycling) exhibited at K 2022 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and drew plenty of attention. The organization had nine people in its booth and still could not talk to everyone who visited, according to founder and Chairman David Katz.

It’s a big deal that Plastic Bank is finding success, as it dips into the recycling stream at a point where plastic is likely ocean-bound. Very little ocean plastic comes from North America, but any plastic in the ocean reflects negatively on the material and the plastics industry everywhere.

How do you measure Plastic Bank’s success? The Vancouver, British Columbia-based organization reports it has collected nearly 79,000 tons of plastic, the equivalent of 3.6 billion bottles. The plastic scrap is processed and sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide.

S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. has purchased about half the material Plastic Bank has collected and uses it in Windex-brand bottles in North America and Mr. Muscle-brand bottles in the U.K.

I am not sure which idea came first—reducing ocean pollution or promoting plastic recycling in ways that benefit poor people in underdeveloped countries—but Plastic Bank is accomplishing both.

Plastic Bank’s process is relatively simple. It organizes collection communities near oceans and rivers, and members gather plastic scrap and bring it to local collection branches where they receive digital tokens and access to benefits such as health, work and life insurance, social assistance, digital connectivity and banking services. Plastic Bank also provides tools and workwear for collection members.

The collected plastic is processed by companies that have partnered with Plastic Bank and the recycled material is sold to OEMs. All material is traceable through a blockchain-secured platform.

In the case of S.C. Johnson, postuse plastic from nearly 400 community collection locations in Asia is shipped to the Philippines to be cleaned and processed into PET flake. That flake is shipped to a recycler in Indiana to be turned into pellets, then to an S.C. Johnson plant in Wisconsin to be blow molded into Windex bottles.

Critics might say shipping recycled material into North America hurts the domestic recycling business, but the truth is domestic recyclers cannot keep up with growing OEM demand for recycled material. For example, S.C. Johnson says it wants to have 100-percent-recycled or reusable packaging by 2025, up from 65 percent today, and it has acknowledged that finding an adequate supply of recycled plastic is a challenge.

Plastic resin is a global commodity as is recycled resin. Creating an ethical system that collects plastic scrap and returns it to OEMs for new products is the goal, and Plastic Bank appears to be doing a good job.