the apr webinar · current plastic recycling concerns - managing degradable plastic will begin at...

Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclerswww.plasticsrecycling.org

Welcome!The APR Webinar

Current Plastic Recycling Concerns - Managing degradable plastic

will begin at 2:00EST.

A few things you should know during this session:

When the session begins, you will be able to listen through your computer’s speakers. The line will be silent until 2:00 EST. You can hear us but we can’t hear you.

You can post comments and questions to the host via the Chat and Question & Answer tools. Please feel free to use this tool often.

As the session goes along, these slides will change.

At the end of the session, we will follow up with answers to questions posted during the call. We'll also include a copy of the presentations and a list of answers to the questions asked

today.

Have any further questions? Type your questions in now!

Can you hear us now?

This Web seminar is being broadcast via the internet and you should now be hearing my voice over your computer's speakers. If you can not, please call in using this information

Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 866-699-3239Access code: 663 476 593

• Over a decade in waste reduction & recycling• Managed solid waste & recycling collection for UNC

Greensboro• Former member of the NC DPPEA Local Government

Recycling Assistance Team• Headed up development of RE3.org• APR, Southeast Recycling Development Council,

Booz Allen Hamilton• Based in SC

Keefe Harrison, APR Communications Administrator

• Involved with plastics recycling since 1988• Based in CT• APR Goals:

– Increase supply and reduce contamination concerns for reprocessors

– Develop protocols for the design of packaging for greater recyclability

– Develop a market for rigid non-bottles– Encourage design for recyclability with guidelines

and programs.

Steve Alexander, APR Executive Director

• 37 years in the recycling industry• Coordinates technical programs for NAPCOR• Monitors PET market trends and produces

NAPCOR’s annual report on PET bottle recycling activity

• Instrumental in PET market development programs, alternative collection tools and protocols that guide design for recyclability

• Based in VT & FL

Mike Schedler, Director of Technology, NAPCOR

• 35-year veteran of the PET packaging industry• 22 year focus on product stewardship and

recycling matters for PET • Professional engineer, author of 15 patents• Based in TN

Dave Cornell, APR Technical Director

• Partner with Optimal Conversions, Inc. More than 25 years PR and marketing experience.

• At Warner-Lambert Company, Mr. Brooks was Manager, Global Marketing Communications for the NOVON Products Group, an early developer of biodegradable polymers for compostable products.

• Undergraduate degree in Rhetoric & Communications from New York State University (Albany) and an MBA from The Marshall Graduate School of Business at the University of Southern California.

David Brooks, Communications Director Biodegradable Products Institute

At the close of this seminar you’ll be able to download this presentation along with a collection of mentioned Web links, speaker contact info, and other resources.

Feel free to ask questions as they come to you. We will try to answer clarification questions during the speaker’s presentation but may need to hold additional questions to the close.

A note about taking notes:

• Dave Cornell - Vocabulary Lesson• Mike Schedler – Understanding the broad perspective.• Dave Cornell – Some of the finer points• Q&A

Agenda

• APR – Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers• NAPCOR – National Association of PET Container Resources

Resin Identification Codes • #1 = PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) • #2 = HDPE (high density polyethylene) • #3 = V (vinyl) • #4 = LDPE (low density polyethylene) • #5 = PP (polypropylene) • #6 = PS (polystyrene) • #7 = Other/mixed plastics

Terms

Terms

•Reclaimer/Recycler –Businesses that take dirty material (i.e. –bales of bottles) and processes it into a clean material (pellet or flake).•Converter –Businesses that take clean material from a reclaimer and convert it into a final product or specialized feedstock (sheet). •MRF – Material Recovery Facility – Sorts materials and prepares for shipment•PCR – Postconsumer Resin – Used for intended use with disposal avoided.

•Bioplastics – Plastics made from plant material. Not new.Rayon is a bioplastic as is cellulose acetate in cigarette filters. Some plastics are made entirely from plant materials, others could have plants as some of the raw materials.

Terms

• PLA - Polylactic Acid Resin. Based on lactic acid, from corn or sugar cane. Degradable, under specific conditions. Essentially, another thermoplastic, like PET, polyethylene, PVC, polypropylene, and polystyrene.

• PLA is not an additive.

Today we will be discussing Plastic with Degradable Additives.

• Degradable Additive – Added at less than 1% to about 5% to non-degrading PET, PE, PP to convert the molecules to carbon dioxide and/or methane.

• Time to degradation varies, but is not quick, can be decades (composting needs ‘days’)

• Leachate issues unresolved

Terms

•Oxo-Degradable Additives – Catalytic – chemical process. Developed in 1970’s for polyethylene.

• Triggered by light/heat/flexing. • Shelf life obtained by adding antioxidant inhibitors. PET does

not normally have antioxidants. • Degradation is throughout the plastic. Once started, the

catalytic degradation process continues.• Fragments available to microbial attack.

• Bio-degradable Additives – Non-catalytic – biological process. • Triggered by microbial environment. Not starch. • Additives help microbes form biofilms. Shelf life by

avoiding microbial environment. Additives enhance microbial attack.

• Degradation can be very slow, decades.

Terms

•Degradable Additives –• We cannot machine-identify when a bottle has additives

present – all become suspect.

• If the additives do their job, the plastic item will ‘fall apart’. The question is when?

• Recycled plastic is often used to make durable goods that need to last a long time (carpet) and can be exposed to weather and microbial environments (strapping and pipe).

• Who is liable when recycled plastic underperforms when containing degradable additives?

• Issued May 28th, 2009• Calls for restraint of use in PET

packaging data regarding its impacts are made publicly available

• Also questions the value of the concept itself

NAPCOR’s Position

Specific data requested – impacts on:- Quality of RPET stream- End products made with RPET- The true service life of these

products

NAPCOR’s Position

What is the value to society ?

Save landfill space ? Maybe but at the price of unwanted methane generation and potential destabilization impacts

Degradable Plastic –The Larger Picture

What is the value to society ?

Facilitate composting ? Neither a reality for backyard composters nor municipal programs. Even if were possible to properly identify and decomposition rates were in synch with organics what nutrients does it provide?

Degradable Plastic –The Larger Picture

What is the value to society ?

Litter Reduction ? Most degradable additive suppliers disavow this notion because of the obvious implications. The larger issue is where do the plastic molecules end up on either land or sea?

Degradable Plastic –The Larger Picture

Depicted and sold as sustainable?

How is this possible when all of the intrinsic value of the material along with the energy invested in the manufacturing of the package is eliminated as it “disappears.”

Degradable Plastic –The Larger Picture

Impacts on climate?

Potentially negates energy conservation potential while producing Greenhouse gas methane.

Degradable Plastic –The Larger Picture

There is no sustainability with respect to plastic packaging without recycling.

There is no such thing as a plastic so “green” that it can just be thrown away.

Degradable Plastic –Reality Check

Right now in the USA we see degradable additives promoted for use in PET bottles. The current world market is polyethylene.

Specific Concerns to HDPE?

Source: www.greenwashingspy.com

Caption: OWS testing reveals that Goody bags were ''completely intact'' after 12 weeks, by which time they were supposed to be turning into safe organic compost. By contrast, certified compostable bags largely disintegrated within two weeks. Click on photo to enlarge.

• As classes, both degradation additive technologies do work in polyethylene, at some rate, depending on conditions.

• Like PET, the questions are:– Is this the best solid waste management decision?– Is landfill management enhanced by the presence of the

additives? Need Life Cycle Assessment for holistic understanding .

– What are the impacts on recycling and use of recycled polyethylene which contain the additives?

– Do the additives preclude the recycling of items containing the additives or even items that might contain the additives? So far, we cannot quickly tell which bottle has additives.

– Are long life products, such as 50 year culvert pipe precluded from using PCR that might contain the additives?

Specific Concerns to HDPE?

Testing protocols.• Our protocol for PET is published. • Some PET additive makers are planning/doing testing.• The test protocol is comprehensive. Because time is a factor in

degradation, the testing is not quick. • www.plasticsrecycling.org – follow link on left side.

Factsheet. A Recycling Coordinator’s Guide to Degradable Additive Plastics http://plasticsrecycling.org/article.asp?id=57

What’s APR Doing?

• Right now we, as a society, are faced with potential for very serious consequences in failure and possibly injury if degradable additives compromise the performance properties of recycled plastics.

• Testing can provide the confidence that ‘no harm is done.’• Until complete testing has shown ‘no harm done,’ recycling

coordinators should be very cautious about including bottles with degrading agents.

• Confirm that your buyers will accept bottles with degrading agents as you develop your public education program.

• These issues will also come up for other plastic packaging, such as bags and tubs and cups.

What should recycling coordinators do?

Use the Q&A feature to ask questions.

Questions?