Two Operational Challenges of Recycling Plastic

Two Operational Challenges of Recycling Plastic

Since synthetic plastic was first introduced in the early 20th-century, it’s become an important material for the global economy, thanks in part to its attractive properties that enable convenience with consumers like its lightweight nature, malleability, durability and relatively low cost to produce.

But with the demand for plastic continuing to increase, even as efforts to reduce single-use plastic grow in popularity, the challenge of recycling the material continues to demand attention from consumers, brands and suppliers. In fact, according to Recycling is Real, the plastics industry has invested or made commitments to invest more than $8 billion in recycling capabilities and technology. So with a clear commitment to using recycled plastics in place, what are the challenges facing the industry to make it happen?

Challenge #1: Consumers aren’t recycling as much as we need them to

Although six billion pounds of plastic are recycled by American consumers every year, the need for more consistent recycling efforts is still a challenge for an industry who is looking for more recycled materials to reuse in product development. In fact, about two-thirds of household recyclables, about 32 million tons of recyclable paper, glass bottles, plastic containers, and more – end up incinerated or in landfills each year. While there are many reasons people choose not to recycle, two rise to the top: it’s confusing and recycling certain materials isn’t easily accessible to them.

One organization in the United States working to make plastic recycling more accessible to consumers is The Recycling Partnership. Their Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, of which Milliken & Company is a member, provides grants to advance polypropylene—commonly referred to in the US as the “No. 5 plastic” and seen in an array of food and non-food packaging—recycling across the country.

One specific example of the work they’re doing is the Recycle Check program. Designed to clear up confusion at the point of recycling, the initiative uses a QR code label that brands can opt in to include on packaging. Working with data submitted by brands to the National Recycling Database, a quick scan of the code will tell consumers if the item is accepted for recycling where they live.

Milliken has also invested in The Recycling Partnership’s Center for Sustainable Behavior & Impact. The Center produces programs that empower and educate consumers across the country to better understand the impact and process of recycling.

Challenge #2: Sorting recycled plastic is currently a laborious process

While there’s still a long way to go to get the plastic material from households and back into supply chains, the recycled material we do have to work with currently has a labor intensive process to go through to be properly sorted before it can be recycled.

Current sorting processes are most often done by hand, requiring huge amounts of manual labor and time. And there’s no skipping this step. Different plastics have different chemistry and melting points and if it’s not properly sorted, it can contaminate the recycling stream and reduce the quality of the recycled material. Some material recovery facilities in the United States have infrared sorting lines, however there is still a lot that can be done to advance this process. Insert the HolyGrail 2.0 Digital Watermark Project.

This EU-based project can help advance recycling around the world by developing technology to add digital watermarks, or stamp-sized codes printed on packaged materials to plastic packaging. The goal is for these codes to do the heavy lifting of carrying the plastic material information and when they enter a recycling center, cameras at the sorting units can easily detect and decode this information to more accurately sort plastic.

Milliken clarifiers have been used to help expand the use of digital watermarks to be used on clear plastics. Milliken has been a proud member of the Digital Watermarks Project since 2022 and continues to work closely with the team to scale the project and help increase recycling efforts globally.

These challenges—or organizations—aren’t all encompassing to the operational challenges facing the plastic industry. That’s why at Milliken, we’re committed to partnering with organizations across the board to research, discover, test and trial new solutions.

In addition to our partnerships with HolyGrail and The Recycling Partnership, Milliken works closely with the following organizations working to transform plastic recycling—

While there’s still progress to be made, identifying the challenges is step one. Together with partners across the industry, Milliken continues to strive toward making a positive impact for generations to come.