Editor’s note: Learn more about accelerating film recycling and many other topics at the 2025 Plastics Recycling Conference on March 24-26 in National Harbor, Maryland.
With its first U.S. mechanical recycling facility for film in the commissioning phase, Canada’s Nova Chemicals is focusing on making plastics recycling real to both customers and suppliers.
Nova Chemicals CEO Roger Kearns said during a recent tour that with this plant, the major PE producer was “demonstrating the reality” of circularity on two fronts: scale and premium quality.
The new Connersville plant, located in central Indiana and operated by packaging company Novolex, has an annual processing capacity of 140 million pounds of LLDPE film, which produces about 110 million pounds of resin. To put the feedstock requirements in perspective, one retail outlet typically generates about 1 million pounds of film per year, said Alan Schrob, director of mechanical recycling at Nova Chemicals.
As with any processing company, increasing collected volumes is a high priority for Nova. Although MRFs supply much of the post-consumer plastics that are mechanically recycled in the U.S., most do not handle post-commercial film. As a result, Nova must create its own supply chain, store by store.
A common objection the company hears from potential generators is that amassing used plastic film is not related to their core business, Schrob said, meaning it may not be of value to them. To help overcome this perceived obstacle, Nova and partner Novolex proactively demonstrate to potential suppliers that the erstwhile waste is a fairly passive revenue stream, and as an added bonus, this activity can help enhance the supplier’s sustainability narrative.
Key education points for supplier outreach include highlighting the ease of having material picked up, as well as proactively showing the company how to create a high-quality bale and why that’s important, said Adrianne Tipton, chief technology officer at Novolex. For example, a representative may visit the potential supplier’s site to explain what should be separated – such as hangers at a retail clothing store – to help make the resulting bale as valuable as possible.
One example of the value brought by making simple changes can be seen in the price differential between the two grades of film bales Nova buys. Historical data from RecyclingMarkets.net shows that A-grade bales, which typically contain 95-99% clear film, are typically priced at an average premium of about 10 cents a pound over B-grade, which contains about 80% film. A site producing 1 million pounds a year could be missing out on $100,000 in revenue by selling suboptimal bales.
Even the most pristine film bale still contains contaminants, so the plant’s sorting equipment gathers other types of plastic film that the company then sells for use in asphalt mixtures, plastic lumber or chemical recycling, Schrob said. The baling wire – removed by machine to avoid injury when the high tension is released – and cardboard slabs used to secure the film during transport also are resold.
A key reason for choosing the site was proximity to numerous population centers, which typically attract businesses that generate the feedstock film. A 300-mile radius of Connersville includes Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis, among other metros, and a combined population of about 26.4 million, according to 2023 U.S. Census estimates.
The area is also easily accessible by truck due to the largely unchallenging topography provided by the Midwest – major trucking pipeline Interstate 70 is about 10 miles north of the facility – as well as robust rail infrastructure. Current customers typically require railcar-size volumes – 180,000-200,000 pounds of resin per car – and the site includes an industrial rail spur. Nova also will ship smaller boxed quantities.
Having an expansive feedstock supply within easy reach is particularly crucial for recycling markets, due to the relatively low value of recovered plastics and high fixed costs for processing. Several companies throughout recycled materials value chains have recently announced plans to bring feedstock processing and end-users closer together amid struggling margins.
Nova previously announced long-term offtake agreements with three major buyers – Amcor, partner Novolex and most recently Winpak – and in mid-2023 announced it was supplying its Syndigo R-PE resin to longtime customer Pregis. The facility also will offer shorter-term contracts and spot volumes. Company representatives didn’t disclose what portion of the production was covered by contracts.
The company worked with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation on tax incentives and educational grants for training Indiana employees, as well as Duke Energy on competitive energy rates, according to a 2023 fact sheet.
