Sustainable Development Goals
Current Project Status:
Development Started 2009 - 2015 | Feasibility Study
Organizations Involved:
Dow Chemical, Flexible Package Association, Republic Services, Agilyx, Reynolds Consumer Products, American Chemistry Council, Citrus Heights, California
Services:
Feasibility Study, Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management,
The Challenge:
Plastic production has soared since its commercial production began more than 50 years ago and is now ubiquitous in daily life. It is found in virtually all products, from packaging and vehicles to medical equipment and electronics. This growth has led to plastic becoming one of the most significant environmental issues worldwide, with plastic waste polluting land, oceans, air, food, and even human blood. The United States is a substantial contributor to this growing problem, being one of the world’s largest consumers of plastics.
Plastic waste has numerous negative environmental and health impacts; however, the most concerning to Americans is the impact of plastic pollution on marine life. Large amounts of plastic waste leak into the ocean each year, contributing to the deaths of thousands of sea mammals and fish. As a result, there is considerable frustration with the recycling systems in the United States due to the significant amount of plastic waste that ends up in the ocean. Some of the most common waste items on beaches nationwide are plastic products, such as food wrappers, grocery bags, straws and stirrers, and beverage bottles.
In the United States, plastics have roughly tripled since the 1980s to more than 80 million metric tons annually, of which the vast majority end up as waste. In 2019, total plastic waste generation reached 73 million metric tons, equivalent to 221 kilograms of plastic waste per inhabitant. This was approximately five times the global per capita average. With the demand for plastics showing little signs of slowing down, plastic waste generation is projected to grow to 142 million metric tons by 2060. Plastics account for approximately 12 percent of municipal solid waste generation, with plastic containers and packaging being the primary sources of plastic waste. Of the estimated 80 million tons of municipal plastic waste generated in the United States in 2021, at least 85 percent was sent to landfill sites. Despite plastic waste generation soaring, the recycling rate is falling. Only five to six percent of municipal plastic waste was recycled in 2021, compared with almost nine percent in 2018.
Although municipal plastic waste generation has increased five-fold since the 1980s, the country still can’t recycle all its waste domestically. Therefore, every year, the government relies on the exportation of large volumes of plastic waste to be treated in other countries around the world, where it is unknown what happens to the plastic waste once it leaves the United States. What is particularly ridiculous is that these exports contribute to domestic recycling rates, even though shipments often go to developing countries that lack efficient waste management infrastructure. This means waste is frequently open-dumped or burned, exacerbating the already considerable problem of plastic waste. As China restricted foreign waste imports alongside other countries, the United States' plastic waste exports have fallen in recent years, and in 2021, shipments dropped to 0.6 million tons. This has put further strain on the already struggling recycling system.
The Solution:
Currently, most multi-material flexible plastic packaging and many other types of plastic are challenging to recycle mechanically and end up in landfills. However, emerging technologies can offer solutions for diverting them from landfills and “recycling” them into feedstocks or valuable energy resources.
During 2014, The Dow Chemical Company, Republic Services, The Flexible Packaging Association, Reynolds Consumer Products, and the city of Citrus Heights, California, collaborated to implement a first-of-its-kind pilot in the United States. The “Energy Bag Pilot” tested the feasibility of collecting households’ non-recycled plastics ("NRP") at the curbside, sorting the NRP at a material recycling facility ("MRF"), delivering the desired/sorted-out NRP to an energy conversion facility, and effectively converting that NRP into an energy resource – all via an existing waste management infrastructure.
During this pilot (conducted between June 1 and August 31, 2014), Citrus Heights citizens living in single-family dwellings were asked to place their non-recycled plastics into a bright purple bag (called the “Energy Bag”) and, when full, place the bag inside their recycling bin at curbside for the regular bi-weekly recycling collection.
At the Republic Services Newby Island Resource Recovery Recyclery (the material recycling facility, or MRF), Energy Bags were separated from the regularly recycled items, bundled, and shipped to a pyrolysis facility, where these high-energy-content materials were converted into valuable synthetic fuel oil.
The pilot program sought to answer five specific questions:
The answers were encouraging, and a summary is as follows:
The pilot ran for three months; however, the planning, negotiations, pre-production, pre-pilot promotions, and post-pilot data recovery took a year to complete. The strong coalition of partners made the planning, implementation, and completion of this pilot possible.
The complete results of the Energy Bag Pilot are available in the following report. The goal is for other municipalities and industry stakeholders to adopt programs like this one, thereby advancing the potential for large-scale “plastics-to-energy” conversion.
As a next step, another pilot program is being planned to validate the findings and assumptions generated by this pilot. Plans anticipate collaborating with brand owners, packaging converters, and industry associations with broad knowledge regarding plastics, sustainability topics, and consumer marketing to help solve issues encountered in this initial pilot.
The Outcome:
The Citrus Heights Energy Bag Pilot aimed to demonstrate the viability of a curbside municipal resource recovery system for currently non-recycled plastics, utilizing an existing waste management infrastructure. Ultimately, the collected materials were used as feedstock for conversion into synthetic fuel oil, thus “closing the loop” of the plastics’ life cycle.
The targeted plastics covered a wide range of items, but multi-material plastic packaging, such as pouches for food and beverage applications, represented a significant percentage. Current estimates by the EPA suggest that these plastic packages are not targeted for recycling and account for approximately 5 million tons of 250 million tons, or 2% of all municipal solid waste.
Critics argue that converting plastics and other organic materials into energy or fuel depletes valuable resources and may reduce incentives for mechanical recycling. However, European countries have some of the highest recycling rates in the world, reaching up to 70%, and also convert their residual waste, including a significant amount of flexible packaging, into energy, thereby avoiding landfilling.
In addition, recent North American research has shown that states with relatively high recycling rates for plastics also have the most waste-to-energy capacity. This indicates that a significant opportunity lies before us and that different options for landfill diversion are already being explored. Programs, such as the Energy Bag Pilot, are being tested and could offer another valuable method to maximize the use of these resources and protect our environment.
This pilot was successful because it answered all the posed questions and demonstrated the viability of an alternative municipal waste management program to divert non-recyclable plastics (NRPs) from landfills and convert them into valuable resources. Specifically, it showed:
Therefore, a long-term pilot program is necessary to increase participation rates and generate the volume of plastic required to justify the operation of a conversion technology facility. It may not entirely fall on the Energy Bag content to support the conversion facilities in the long term. Recycling facilities sell a significant amount of the materials they collect, such as paper, metal, aluminum, and recycled plastics, to recyclers. Still, there are currently no resale markets for these non-recycled plastics. Many recycling facilities already have a significant amount of non-recycled plastics going down their lines that would likely be intentionally collected if a profit could be made. Capturing a portion of this existing material, along with the NRP collected through the Energy Bags, could help fill the needs of a conversion technology plant like Agilyx. Looking to the future, as the supply of collected plastics grows and the ability of recycling facilities to sort and market more specific types of plastic develops, conversion technologies could expand and evolve to provide additional outlets for the resource recovery of a broader range of plastics.
As a next step, another pilot is being planned to validate the assumption that improved communication will drive higher participation rates and higher quality of material collected for conversion. Plans anticipate partnering with brand owners who understand consumer marketing, packaging converters, and industry associations, as well as possessing knowledge regarding plastics, sustainability topics, and complementary strategies, to help address issues encountered in this initial pilot. A broad coalition of industry players will implement any subsequent pilots to ensure success and continue driving change.
The Energy Bag Pilot was, and continues to be, a story about the power of collaboration – how companies, communities, organizations, and everyday people can work together to bring about the changes the world wants to see.
Klean Industries Inc., a specialist in petroleum-based waste recycling, began working with Dow Chemical in 2009 and facilitated site visits to one of Dow Chemical's most extensive reference facilities in Japan. Klean and its partners continue to explore potential opportunities to expand upon the knowledge and experience gained through various pilot studies across North America. They also continue to develop new opportunities to roll out facilities in North America that incorporate Klean's technology, which has been proven at scale in Japan.
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