Plastics

Envision Plastics introduces deodorized resin

The plastics recycling company Envision Plastics, Reidsville, North Carolina, a division of Consolidated Container Co., headquartered in Atlanta, says it has shipped more than 5 million pounds of its proprietary line of deodorized resin, a postconsumer resin that has been cleaned and deodorized using Envision’s proprietary process.

“To put it plainly, we take the smell out,” says Mark Shafer, general manager of Envision Plastics. “Our patented process takes postconsumer plastic and reduces the odor to a level such that the revitalized resin can be used in a variety of scent-sensitive applications.”

Deodorized resin is available for natural and mixed-color applications and can be combined with other compounds. Envision says the product’s diversified qualities allow it to be used in a variety of nonfood applications in which scent sensitivity is an issue, such as air-conditioning vents and personal care products.

Shafer says, “We have noticed a recent and growing demand for odor-neutral postconsumer resins in the marketplace.”

Preserve, UrthPact to make recycled plastic cutlery

Preserve, a consumer products company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is partnering with renewable plastics manufacturer UrthPact LLC, Leominster, Massachusetts, to provide a line of single-use plastic cutlery made from recycled plastic.

Paul Boudreau, CEO of UrthPact, says his company was chosen by Preserve to manufacture the cutlery and dispensers from recycled polypropylene (PP) plastic. The product line was rolled out in a six-store pilot program this January, prior to the launch of a nationwide program March 1, 2017.

“We’re excited to be working with Preserve to launch this new line of earth-friendly cutlery manufactured entirely from recycled No. 5 plastic,” says Boudreau.

The cutlery begins with 100-percent-recycled PP resin and has been designed to be part of Preserve’s Gimme 5 plastic recycling program. Introduced in 2007, the Gimme 5 program enables consumers to recycle their PP products using bins located at a number of retail establishments throughout the New England area. The reclaimed plastic is then recycled into recycled-content plastic products.

Preserve notes that consumers unable to take advantage of Gimme 5’s recycling bins can mail their plastic products back to Preserve for recycling.

The partnership between the two companies began about two years ago when Boudreau approached Preserve with a biodegradable, compostable plastic compound.

Boudreau says he sees the retail grocery chain cutlery program as an opportunity to get environmentally friendly, sustainably produced plastic products front and center in the public eye. Boudreau and Hudson also say they see the potential for new products.

Hospitals complete plastics recycling pilot project in the Chicago market

The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC), St. Paul, Minnesota, in collaboration with the Plastics Industry Association (Plastics), Washington, has announced the completion of a multihospital plastics recycling project in the Chicago market. A report detailing project development, implementation and analysis can be found at www.hprc.org/chicago-project. (See the article “Connecting Supply with Demand: An Experiment in Regional Recycling of Health Care Plastics,” in the Plastics Recycling publication accompanying this issue for more details.)

Participating hospitals included Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Evanston, Skokie and Glenbrook hospitals. These hospitals collected a variety of health care plastics, including polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) resins in the form of sterilization wrap, irrigation bottles, basins, pitchers, trays, Tyvek and rigid and flexible packaging materials, primarily from main operating rooms and ambulatory surgery centers. These materials were then transported by waste haulers to material recovery facilities (MRFs) for assessments related to composition and quality. Complexity of material types, improper sorting and the presence of nonconforming materials were the primary challenges in being able to extract the recycling value from the materials, according to the project.

“This project provided valuable insights into the realities of implementing plastics recycling programs in clinical health care settings,” says Chris Rogers, HPRC project manager. “What we learned is that collection of plastics must be made simple for clinical staff in order to be effective. Detailed sorting at the point of generation is too complex and a distant priority from clinician’s primary focus of ensuring positive patient outcomes. It’s also important to remember that behavioral change around recycling can be a slow process, one that takes constant reinforcement over time.”