Berry Global joins The Recycling Partnership’s polypropylene coalition

Berry Global Group, a packaging manufacturer based in Evansville, Indiana, has announced it is joining The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition. The coalition is aimed at increasing recycling access for polypropylene (PP).

The company says the announcement extends its goal of enhancing recycling infrastructure as part of the quest toward a circular economy. Berry joins Polypropylene Recycling Coalition steering committee members like Keurig Dr. Pepper, Braskem, NextGen Consortium and the Walmart Foundation.

The coalition has:

• contributed $4.2 million in grants to 13 recycling facilities to positively impact nearly 15 million U.S. residents, almost 6 percent of the U.S. population;
• given financial awards across the United States to increase polypropylene recovery by 13 million pounds annually; and,
• supported targeted consumer education efforts and infrastructure improvements.

“By expanding and modernizing recycling infrastructure, we will capture the economic value that is currently being lost and supply the recycled content necessary to meet commitments,” says Robert Flores, vice president of sustainability at Berry. “This is critical to achieving a circular economy and giving natural resources multiple lives.” 

According to a news release from Berry, the initiative is in line with the company’s efforts to improve PP curbside recycling.

Berry says it’s targeting investments and partnerships to foster recycling infrastructure. An example of this is a recent collaboration with Evansville, Indiana, materials recovery facility (MRF) to purchase and install a new AMP Robotics Cortex high-speed robotics system to sort polypropylene. Recovered material will be used back in Berry’s products. More importantly, learnings from the robot will be evaluated and shared to enhance and promote PP recycling.