Sea change

Ocean Recovery Group (ORG), which was launched in 2021 by brothers Brent and Zachary Kirstein in partnership with packaging producer AE Global/Acorn East, Miami, is working to prevent ocean-bound plastics in the Western Hemisphere. The social enterprise, which is based in the Miami area, says its mission is “to increase recycling rates by collecting ocean-bound plastics to reintroduce into the supply chain,” and it is starting relatively close to home in the Dominican Republic.

No strangers to recycling

The Kirsteins are well-acquainted with the recycling industry as the owners of 4G Recycling in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

The brothers say their family has been involved in the recycling industry since 1910, when their great-grandfather, Phillip Kirstein, began searching the New York City streets for textiles, metals, newspapers and other recyclables to resell. In 1930, he relocated his family to Connecticut, and his eldest son, Abraham, joined the company, which was named United Paper & Metal at that time. In 1965, Harold, Abe’s son and father to Brent and Zack, started working in the family business, helping it to expand throughout New England. The brothers joined the family business, then named American Recycling, in the late 1990s.

In 2008, Greenstar NA, which was owned by Ireland-based NTR plc, purchased American Recycling’s assets, and Brent and Zack held management positions at Greenstar. But the Kirsteins’ desire to continue their family legacy in the recycling industry and build a company that would be around for their children led them to start 4G Recycling in 2012. That company focuses on brokering high-grade recovered fiber, but also handles plastic, metals and solid waste.

Now, the Kirsteins are looking to expand their recycling legacy with ORG.

The organization says its extensive knowledge across the recycling and packaging industries and its commitment toward the greater good enables it to effectively and efficiently divert large and scalable amounts of ocean-bound plastics to help consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies achieve their sustainability goals.

Improving lives and the environment

Zack, who is president of ORG and its majority partner, says as a recycling company owner, he is “always looking for opportunities to do the greatest good that we can do.”

Nearly a decade ago, he started buying recyclables from the Dominican Republic and took note of the degree of poverty on the island and the extent of homelessness and inadequate housing. That introduction to the reality of life on the island, Zack says, was the genesis for the partnership with Andres Fanjul, president and managing partner of Miami-based AE Global, and ORG’s formation.

He says the Fanjul family is among the largest landowners in the Dominican Republic. The family employs 25,000 people on the island and supports a number of charitable endeavors, so it already was doing a great deal of good.

“As we started talking about ocean-bound plastics, we recognize a tremendous demand for these products in the packaging space,” Zack says. “And so having a partner that also is in packaging and does have a very robust packaging business is going to facilitate us … creating ocean-bound plastic products and selling them to large CPG companies.”

Brent says ORG identifies areas on the island, including the Jimenoa, Ozama and Isabela rivers, that have abandoned plastics that are in danger of entering the ocean and works with local collectors to recover this material.

“We are teaching them how to collect more waste and paying them more money than they otherwise would receive,” he says of ORG’s work with the collectors. “We are serving a social purpose in addition to keeping plastics from getting into the ocean.”

Zack says ORG pays nearly double the prevailing market rates to its collectors. “We’re also providing educational opportunities for the workers and their families.” He says ORG is looking at ways to help with their medical and food needs.

The company “is helping people improve their lives,” Zack adds.

Additionally, ORG has committed to donating 10 percent of its net profits back to the local community. It also has partnered with Mission International Rescue (MIR), West Palm Beach, Florida, to build a baseball facility on the island and develop sports programming at Politecnico MIR Esperanza, a school helps fight poverty in addition to providing educational opportunities for its students.

According to ORG, approximately 40 percent of Dominican students drop out of school before eighth grade, often with hopes of pursuing a career in professional baseball. Therefore, ORG and MIR are building the baseball field to encourage students’ love of the sport while helping them continue their educations. This year marks the start of construction on the field.

Postcollection operations

Once the plastic has been collected from more than 10 sites throughout the Dominican Republic, it is sorted by hand three times, Brent says, at existing facilities on the island that ORG partners with. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), natural high-density polyethylene (HDPE), mixed color HDPE, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) are individually segregated. Material that is too degraded to be recycled is sent to a waste-to-energy facility.

The company’s La Vega, Dominican Republic, facility, which it owns in partnership with Next Generation Recycling (NGR) Latin America, has two plastics processing lines that include a friction washer, shredders, sink tanks, steamers and pelletizers. The facility began operations in February 2022 and can bale the collected plastics as well as cardboard and other types of recovered fiber using either a two-ram Max-Pak baler or one of seven vertical balers.

“Our plans are to recycle anything we can recycle on the island, try to increase the recycling rates and make it so that less materials end up in the landfill there,” Zack says, noting that the island has only an 8 percent recycling rate.

ORG’s recycled plastic offering is made up of PET bales and flakes; LDPE pellets; HDPE bales, flakes and pellets; and PP bales, flakes and pellets.

The company offers its partners the opportunity to achieve their sustainability goals through the purchase of these plastics and plastic credits.

For each plastic credit a customer purchases, ORG says it guarantees 2.2 pounds of plastic was removed from the environment and recycled or sent to its appropriate end of life.

By purchasing these credits, an ORG customer can “become an enabler for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 11) supporting adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services such as waste collection,” the company says. For each plastic credit purchased, ORG says it invests in housing and community-based sports and education programs.

Certified success

Making a verifiable impact in the Dominican Republic is important to the Kirsteins and OBP.

The company says it is the first U.S.-based ocean-bound plastic recycler to receive Zero Plastic Oceans’ Ocean-Bound Plastic Certification, awarded in May 2022. Zack says ORG chose France-based Zero Plastic Oceans’ certification because he and Brent believe it is becoming the “gold standard” of such available certifications.

To achieve this certification, ORG says it provided documentation that ocean-bound plastics are collected ethically and well-managed once collected. Recyclable material is traced until the final product is made, while unrecyclable material is handled properly in a traceable and verifiable manner.

Brent says ORG felt it needed to obtain third-party certification because of concerns about greenwashing.

The certification is helping to document the impact the company is making in the nation. Zack says he’s proud of what the company has done to date. “We’re making an impact in a place that really needs it.”

The author is editorial director of the Recycling Today Media Group and can be reached at dtoto@gie.net.