In Ed Dominion’s view, those looking from the outside into the plastics recycling industry might view its inhabitants as guilty until proven innocent, making claims that don’t match the reality of where material goes once it’s collected.
Dominion’s company, D6 Inc., has spent much of the last 11 years trying to restore consumer confidence in domestic recycling systems.
D6 began in a 750-square-foot facility in Portland, Oregon, in 2014 as a rapid prototyping company specializing in thermoforming and 3D printing, earning a reputation for its ability to produce packaging prototypes at a blistering pace, including the development of samples within a 36-to-72-hour time frame.
In the years since, D6 relocated its headquarters to Sulphur Springs, Texas, and expanded its capabilities to become a responsible end market for plastic and aluminum scrap, managing all aspects of the recycling process from collection to arrival at a retailer’s shelf.
“We want to help be an evolution to the recycling industry and consumers’ confidence, because if the consumer doesn’t put [items] in the recycling bin, we have nothing to work with—all of us,” D6 founder and CEO Dominion says. “This is where our platform comes into play for retailers and consumers.”
At its facilities, vertically integrated D6 manufactures and mechanically recycles an array of plastics, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and thermoforms, polypropylene and high- and low-density polyethylene, as well as aluminum, claiming full sight and control of the recovered materials until they hit the market in the form of new packaging.
D6 works with retailers and brands to produce recycled-content food-grade packaging that complies with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations and sources recovered plastic and aluminum from numerous material recovery facilities.
To boost collection and develop its own material streams, D6 developed community recycling units (CRUs), 10-foot-by-20-foot containers that look like shipping containers and serve as easy-to-use consumer drop-off sites.
The company’s recycling developments have been guided by its desire to serve as a quiet catalyst for the industry in the form of a fully transparent, traceable and auditable partner for major retailers, such as Walmart and Sam’s Club; consumer packaged goods companies; and private brand co-packers, among others, diverting large volumes of plastics and aluminum from landfills.
Going with the material flow
D6 operates 16 facilities in 10 states, employing 331 people. These facilities range from production plants to warehouses and are located strategically to minimize transportation emissions and streamline logistics.
The company’s production facilities in Texas, specifically, are located within two hours of each other, ensuring efficiency and reduced environmental impact, according to Dominion. One of the company’s long-term goals is to become carbon negative by 2035.
D6 facilities perform different functions, such as cleaning and washing recyclables, extrusion and fabrication, manufacturing and production and storing finished goods.
When it comes to sorting incoming recyclables, Dominion says D6 focuses on pick accuracy instead of speed or volume, deploying a double-digit number of cameras and optical sorters that can segregate different types of plastic and aluminum passing through.
“We’re more about accuracy rather than pounds per hour because of our refinement and what we’re going through and looking for,” he adds.
The company’s recycling system involves several stages. First postconsumer plastics are optically sorted. Then, material is washed and decontaminated to remove impurities. Next, PET is processed through liquid state polycondensation reactors to enhance its intrinsic viscosity and create near-virgin-quality food-grade pellets. Cleaned and processed material is extruded into roll stock, which then can be thermoformed to produce private-branded food-grade packaging, including trays, containers and more.
By leveraging its vertically integrated recycling and manufacturing system, D6 says it is able to produce up to 100 percent-domestic-recycled-content packaging for food-grade applications while adhering to Safe Quality Food Program and FDA safety standards.
D6 also employs a zero-landfill strategy in the daily operations of all its facilities. For example, production scrap, such as webbing and fines, is collected and shipped to its extrusion plant to be processed into roll stock. It also partners with other reprocessors and original equipment manufacturers to ensure all the material it brings in is recycled.
“We try to upcycle in a mechanical way as best as possible for our network,” Dominion says. “Recycling is the heart and soul of what we do as a company, so we look to get whatever value we can or find the most responsible end market for that waste to go to.”
Trusted partner
D6’s chief aspirations are transparency, traceability and auditability.
The company is transparent in its community outreach and through open reporting and third-party validation, such as Green Circle certifications. It also adheres to design guidelines from the Association of Plastic Recyclers, Washington, and aligns with global requirements while integrating domestic and ISO standards to validate recycling and processing claims. Frameworks from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Project Gigaton from Walmart, which seeks to avoid 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its value chain by 2030, play critical roles in shaping D6’s reporting and operational strategies, too.
D6 can ensure traceability of its postconsumer recycled content through material audits and its proprietary tracking software, Ecovisor, which monitors material in real time from collection to shelf. When loads are picked up from CRUs, for example, the company tracks what ZIP code the material came from and the size of the yield from that unit, then puts the material through its process and can show which containers made their way back to store shelves.
“It’s very unique for the tracking and the transparency around it,” Dominion says of the software.
Additionally, D6 aims to achieve accountability through responsiveness, measurable commitments and ethical operations as it continues to support its partners in the collection of plastics and aluminum through its unique system.
“We’re just trying to put as many pounds into the system as humanly possible,” Dominion says.
Engaging communities
In recent years, D6 began to roll out its CRUs in partnership with retailers, such as Walmart and Sam’s Club, and has found success in developing its own material stream to feed its recycling system while also making recycling access and education available to the public.
As of the end of 2024, D6 had 58 CRUs deployed across five states, usually near a retail location, that have been customized to accept numerous types of plastic as well as aluminum. Each unit can hold up to eight doors to store material and is marked with bilingual instructions to help residents place items in the proper chute. Using a mix of its own fleet and third parties, D6 collects materials from the CRUs weekly or biweekly.
Additionally, Dominion says D6 is targeting rural and urban areas, or “recycling deserts,” for container placement. Solar-powered options are available for accessibility in remote or off-grid locations.
The company plans to roll out more CRUs throughout the year.
“It’s encouraging when you put these CRUs in the communities. People really care about recycling. They want to trust and be confident the items they’re dropping off will be upcycled, and that is what we are working towards, getting the trust of the consumer.” – Ed Dominion, D6 founder and CEO
“We are seeing fast adoption, and the pride [residents] are taking when they’re making their deposits,” Dominion says. “The yields we’re seeing are now the benchmark in the industry because these folks in the communities are cleaning and washing their plastics and aluminum, and they’re sorting them across eight doors [in the CRU]. We have very limited to no commingling.
“It’s encouraging when you put these CRUs in the communities. People really care about recycling. They want to trust and be confident the items they’re dropping off will be upcycled, and that is what we are working towards, getting the trust of the consumer because we operate in an industry around recycling that, good, better or indifferent, [is necessary]. … We are looking to be a complement to the waste haulers and to evolve with them as a complementary technology, giving urban and rural communities access to recycling at no cost. We’re thankful how the communities are supporting the CRU program.”
When the company deploys CRUs, D6 employees engage with community members and organizations to educate them on proper recycling techniques.
“It’s very positive because people just want to see, touch and know that [material] is going to be upcycled after it leaves, not that it’s going to get baled and burned or buried,” Dominion says. “At the end of the day, we [could be] looping their recycled materials back into the retailer’s store.”
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