Rigids committee gives update at APR meeting

Rigids committee gives update at APR meeting

By Jerry Powell, Resource Recycling

The 36 members of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers Rigids Committee convened at the organization's meeting last week in Charlotte, North Carolina to discuss the latest issues facing that sector of plastics recycling.

The rigids group has two subcommittees: bale definitions (e.g., supply) and recycled resin (demand). For example, the recycled resin subcommittee is trying to determine the demand for recycled PP rigids and is now surveying 19 potential users. A report will be issued to reclaimers by the end of the year.

A national bale study has also been completed on material being collected and sold. As part of the study, bales were sorted, markets were determined and the supply of mixed-rigids was analyzed. Seven bale types were determined that contained non-bottle rigids. An executive summary will be issued in the next few weeks.

In other committee news, a grocery store rigid plastics pilot program is underway to assess the potential to recover mixed rigids generated by stores. The project will also assess impediments to additional recycling. The goal is to generate how-to guidelines for implementing rigid recycling programs in stores. APR is working with the Food Marketing Institute on this project.

Finally, the rigids committee said that APR will continue to survey the largest community in each state on how that community educates its residents on recycling. The organization has undertaken this study for the past three years. More and more communities are moving to single-stream collection and moving from just plastics bottles to all-bottles collection. More than half of the communities are picking up all plastic containers, not just bottles.

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