Plastic recycling is facing criticism for its low recovery rate, with a recent article in The Atlantic magazine claiming the process "does not work." Argus spoke with Steve Alexander, chief executive of industry group the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), about the criticisms and supply issues that have dogged plastics recyclers in 2022. Edited highlights follow.
What do you do within your role at APR?
We have a great staff, very technically oriented, and I just oversee and manage the mission of the organization. We want to make sure that we're a technical advice provider to interested parties, be it legislators, regulators, Congress, whoever. We have gotten more involved in the advocacy role simply because we want to make sure that any regulations that are enacted actually address the problem.
What do you think are the current biggest bottlenecks in getting more material to recycle?
Number one is confusion, in terms of what goes in the bin and what doesn't go in the bin. We're big proponents of standardized recycling collection programs. We can't expect the consumer to understand the difference between one community program and another.
But another one of our biggest issues is contamination from design. Products that are designed with paper labels, adhesives, pouches and things like that. There's a lot of packaging innovation that is just not recyclable. That's where our design program comes in, so that we can train packaging engineers and companies to make their packaging recyclable.
There's been a lot of negative sentiment directed at recycled plastics from environmental groups and major media outlets lately. What do you think is the cause of it?
Well, it's an easy narrative, right? And everybody picks up on it. The narrative of the cycle is broken, so we're going to get rid of it. I think what people don't realize is that 81pc of consumer plastics packaging is packaged in three resins. Polyethylene teraphlate (PET), high density polyethlyene (HDPE), and polypropylene. Those three resins, according to the EPA, are recycled at a 21pc rate. Which is not great. We have the capacity as recyclers to make that rate 42pc today if we can get the material.
It's not a money problem. It's a problem with getting supply material. People throw numbers around, and they use the denominator all plastics. But 81pc of the packaging problem, we know how to recycle, and we recycle it every day. And we're saying we can recycle more. Collect the material.
So the proponents that want to just ban plastic use other figures to paint this broad brush. That somehow recycling doesn't work. But recycling works every day, right? I mean, we recycled 5 billion pounds of material in 2020. I'm not a defender of the plastics industry, I'm a defender of the recycling industry, and the recycling industry can work if we get some help with supply.
We've solved four of the five issues that you need to solve to help plastics recycling be sustainable. We've created the design guide. We've created the sortation protocol. We've created the processing structure so we can process the material. We've helped push brands, so now we have a lot of demand in the market. What we don't have and what we can't control is the supply of material, which is a government job. They have to make sure that the material is collected and made available.
And there are easy things to do, that make it simple. Standardized selection programs. Every recycling program should take X. And see how that works, rather than some take this, some take that. We're big on standardized collection and standardized labeling.
Do you think extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs could help as well?
The proof will be in the pudding. We have yet to see an EPR program enacted and put into place in this country. The question remains, will it generate more supply material?
Do you think negative sentiments pose a real threat to the recycling industry? Or is it just a stepping stone in the way of achieving a more circular economy?
I think it's a real threat. You can't get circularity without recycling, and I think it's easy to believe the negative narratives that have been spread around.
We've already seen negative comment leading to communities not collecting certain material, pulling back on their recycling programs. So as result, there's less material available to be recycled, which lowers the recycling rate. In the end, you get a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What we should be doing is supporting community recycling. Simplifying the programs. Collect as much material as we can.
What are APR and other industry forces doing to push back against people who say recycling doesn't work?
I put out an op-ed a few weeks ago. We're putting together a white paper based on facts, and we'll be doing a lot more things like that. We haven't looked at that as our role in the past, but we think we have credibility, so it makes sense to help out.
Do you think there is some misdirected blame here? Because it seems like the plastics recycling industry is getting blamed for the plastics industry producing such a large amount of plastics.
I think it's easy for some people to rub it all into one. I think the people who are focused on banning plastic put us all in the same category. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than looking at us as a solution, and trying to enhance that solution, they pick on the one segment of the plastics packaging industry that is working to undermine and attack it.
It's such an easy narrative to say, oh, recycling is broken. Obviously we disagree, it's certainly not perfect and it needs a lot of work. But I wish that people would listen to us.
In terms of increasing the amount of supply, what can be done other than government intervention to try and create a more standardized recycling infrastructure?
I think demand is going to continue to grow, so we've got to be more consistent in terms of what our programs collect. And you know, we've got to make it easier for the consumer, less confusing. And lastly, incentivize brands to use more recycled content in their products.
Do you think that the recycling industry will be able to match the amount of demand created by corporate commitments?
Not by 2025, if we aren't getting enough material. We did an analysis two years ago in California, and at that time we needed to collect 2.5 to 3 times the amount of PET bottles to meet 2025 goals, and nothing has changed.
In the end, it's not that complicated. If you get us the supply, we'll make it. If you don't get us supply, we can't process it. We can only process what we have available.
