Accelerated solutions

The qualities that allow plastics to be used in a wide range of products, such as eyeglasses, clothing, furniture, flooring, automobiles, toys, appliances, electronics, face masks and packaging, also are the same qualities that make plastics one of the most complex and challenging materials to recover and recycle. Even the word plastics is a gross simplification of the range of resins, technical qualities and applications of this material that has become central to modern life. The inherent complexity is at the heart of the challenge to create more sustainable and circular management solutions for plastics.

A circular shift

The circular economy is a shift in the way industry thinks about waste and where and how we derive value from the materials we produce. In a circular economy, there is no waste; instead, waste feeds a new cycle of production, reducing the demand for raw materials, including virgin plastics. In a world increasingly strained for resources and suffering from the consequences of consumption that is out of balance with natural systems, striving to develop a circular economy for plastics presents a myriad of possibilities and significant challenges. It is critically necessary to drive action toward more sustainable solutions in the areas of collecting, sorting and end markets for this fossil-fuel-based material. As we navigate transitioning to a circular economy, more sustainable materials and models will continue to grow, including redesigning products, scaling reuse and reduction models and improving recycling systems.

To support a shift to a circular economy, including one which addresses plastics aligning with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation vision for a circular economy for plastics, Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), a recycling and sustainability consulting firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has deployed a model to accelerate solutions and fill gaps through innovation and partnerships: NextCycle.

NextCycle is designed around accelerating solutions toward a circular economy where “waste” is no longer part of the system and is adapted strategically to meet specific regional, statewide and national needs. The NextCycle model is creating a playground and proving ground for businesses and solutions to grow with the support of coaching, technical expertise, driving data, partnerships and investment. Launched in three States—Colorado, Michigan and Washington—NextCycle programs already have supported 107 participants—businesses and community projects—nearly one-quarter of which address plastic streams and even more that address solutions that tie back to the fossil fuel-based material. Solutions range from reducing the use of materials; ensuring valuable materials are collected, including driving a market for lower-value products; innovating sorting and processing to fully recover useful materials; and ensuring recovered materials feed into new products.

Importantly, NextCycle participants are supported in navigating funding pathways and preparing their initiatives for funding and are matched with partners. Each cohort culminates in a Pitch Showcase, where teams pitch their project’s value proposition to funders, investors and colleagues. Already, $41 million has been tracked for supporting solutions NextCycle participants are implementing, $14.5 million of which is toward solutions addressing plastics and plastic circularity.

Plastic projects

The plastics projects across the three NextCycle states are diverse and broad, with different focus areas, varying levels of readiness from startups to mature organizations and different places in the supply chain.

NextCycle Colorado emphasizes innovation and technology and has attracted teams addressing plastics challenges across the supply chain, from new packaging solutions to processing innovations for otherwise uncaptured materials. NextCycle Michigan supports private and public sector participants who are uniquely focused and include improved and increased plastic recycling access, processing or new markets. NextCycle Washington has attracted teams that are tackling reduction and reuse models with a specific focus on community impact driven by the voices that have been part of a codesign and co-governance strategy.

Across programs in each state, teams involved in the plastics value chain are collecting and processing plastics, addressing challenging plastic products and resins and driving investment for innovative solutions.

Collection and processing innovations

California-based company Glacier is leveraging NextCycle opportunities in Michigan and Washington. As one of the NextCycle Michigan participants in the first Recycling, Innovation and Technology Track, Glacier brought its robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to be vetted and piloted in Michigan, partnering with local material recovery facilities (MRFs) to sort recyclables more efficiently and affordably.

Expanding efforts to NextCycle Washington, Glacier joined the first cohort with the potential impact of installing one Glacier robot in each of Washington’s 264 MRFs, potentially resulting in 84,700 incremental tons collected annually representing $68.2 million in revenue. With more efficient, cost-effective and precise sorting capabilities, materials are poised to enter the market with more potential for value and the ability to be used in new products.

NextCycle also is supporting solutions that address more challenging and less typically accepted materials. Colorado Team Foam Cycle participated in the first cohort of a program focusing on building partnerships with Colorado municipalities to scale drop-off stations to collect and densify expanded polystyrene (EPS), or foam packaging. Foam packaging being notoriously light and difficult to compact makes transportation and collection logistics difficult. Additionally, minimal markets and other challenges mean this material traditionally has been destined for landfill. FoamCycle can effectively collect and process this material to then be used to create recycled picture frames that are then sold to the communities sponsoring the collections. During accelerator programming, FoamCycle was able to build connections with Colorado municipalities, navigate specific challenges and opportunities and discuss partnerships with foam and other manufacturers to build its system in Colorado.

Addressing challenging plastics

Most people recognize the challenge of finding homes for the kinds of plastic products that end up unsold on the shelves of resale shops such as those operated by Goodwill. From plastic furniture, children’s toys and shelving units to storage totes, tubs and crates, Goodwill Industries of West Michigan had been seeking to reduce its waste stream and find a solution to a myriad of plastic products. Through NextCycle Michigan, the organization was partnered with HydroBlox, a water infrastructure company looking to increase its use of postconsumer plastics in its stormwater drainage systems. This match turned out to be golden, as Goodwill & HydroBlox have entered into a joint venture to manufacture stormwater drainage systems and keep Goodwill’s nearly 1 million pounds of plastic out of local landfills.

Nick Carlson, business development director for Goodwill Industries of West Michigan, shared this story when he went to Toronto to present a sustainability tracking software developed in-house. The audience of Goodwill CEOs and board chairs from across the country were eager to hear more about the Hydroblox deal to reduce their plastic waste. With 155 Goodwill organizations and more than 4,000 stores in the U.S., Canada and various other countries, the potential for scaling this solution is compelling.

“Goodwill sits in a unique position to be able to manage postconsumer durable goods waste. We have a vision to find homes for all the products we receive,” Carlson says. “Our partnership with HydroBlox is an important step for us in eliminating plastic waste through our donated goods supply chain. We are also working on technologies to eliminate other waste sources, such as glass, wood and even cotton and polyester textile waste. We are extremely grateful for NextCycle Michigan and the work they do in connecting problems to solutions. NextCycle Michigan was able to help find an excellent partner for us in Hydroblox. We look forward to launching our HydroBlox manufacturing operation by early summer 2023 in Muskegon, Michigan.”

Vartega joined NextCycle Colorado as an early stage carbon fiber recycler with a focus on expanding the recycling of thermoplastics into composite materials for advanced manufacturing. This project is part of creating a valuable market for materials recovered from consumers, given that thermoplastics typically are a low-value commodity reused in a value-added product, ultimately helping encourage additional recovery. Through Nextcycle programming, Vartega learned about Colorado’s plastics supply chain landscape, completed more in-depth evaluation of the project feasibility and focused on establishing core partnerships for local feedstock suppliers and producers willing to integrate upcycled composites into their products.

Following NextCycle Colorado programming, Vartega was awarded a $364,000 Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity grant from the state of Colorado to fund its expansion and create new green-sector jobs.

Since benefitting from its experience with Colorado’s NextCycle, Vartega was quick to explore the offerings of NextCycle Michigan when it launched the following year and received additional funding from Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), to expand its carbon fiber recycling business.

By 2021 the team expanded its partnership with Braskem, an American polyolefins and biopolymers producer, to include 100 percent-recycled carbon fiber filament for 3D printing. Like Goodwill, this is another example of scaling and/or replicating opportunities through NextCycle.

Denver-based Sana Packaging targets a specific market and makes its statement in designing and developing cannabis packaging for a circular economy using hemp-based plastic, reclaimed ocean plastic and other sustainable materials. Sana Packaging is not a distributor nor a manufacturer but a packaging brand. The company establishes strategic partnerships with manufacturers and cannabis companies to supply sustainable packaging for retail sales, with the aim of creating a closed-loop system of manufacture, use, collection and remanufacture of polypropylene (No. 5, PP) or high-density polyethylene (No. 2, HDPE), and other packaging materials. Feeding alternative materials, such as hemp, and incorporating recycled content into products are important aspects of working towards reducing virgin plastic use and increasing plastic circularity.

While some solutions are innovating new composites from recycled plastics, others are pioneering a different form of recycling focused on engineering enzymes to recycle plastics into virgin-quality material. Birch Biosciences, a NextCycle Washington team, is working to scale its “molecular scissors” (engineered enzymes) to bring plastics back to the form of “building blocks” to be used as virgin plastics. This work helps to address some of the challenges of many plastics that get recovered but downcycled into products with a lower value. Addressing that challenge will help plastics become more circular and reduce the need for virgin plastics. As a NextCycle alumnus, Birch Biosciences competed in the 2023 WasteExpo Pitch Slam, winning the “People’s Choice Award” for its approach to recycling plastics with an initial focus on polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Driving investment

NextCycle Colorado initially was envisioned as a better alternative to traditional grant-making, providing vetting of project proposals and aligning limited state funding to prioritized projects. NextCycle Michigan took it further, actively seeking partner investments to bolster and further EGLE funding. This can take several forms. Closed Loop Partners is offering up to $5 million per project in zero or below-market interest loans in each NextCycle state for projects that align with its mission. The Carton Council, Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) and others stand ready to provide grant matching funds for projects and teams unable to supply the required match, with Carton Council committing $1 million to qualifying NextCycle projects over three years. Most recently, NextCycle Michigan, through its partner Centrepolis Accelerator of LTU, was awarded a $1.6 million EDA (Economic Development Association) Build to Scale grant to amplify and accelerate projects by providing technical assistance with an emphasis on underserved businesses and communities.

As NextCycle teams and partners innovate additional pathways to recover plastics and have value-added markets for them, they also are building the foundation for how plastic alternatives could be recovered in addition to the plastics we are working to manage now.

NextCycle is helping drive circular solutions for plastics as well as other materials and, importantly, pairing innovative solutions and development with the appropriate investments to implement real and impactful solutions. 

Keira Higgins joined RRS as an analyst in 2020, while Elisa Seltzer joined RRS in March 2019 as a senior consultant.