Making Sense of the Mix: The Future of the Curbside Bin Dylan de Thomas Resource Recycling, Inc .
What’s Going to Be in the Bin? • What’s the mix today? • What’s changing in materials use? • What does it mean? • How will it be recovered? • The road forward
Methodology/Sources • EPA 2012 MSW Characterization Report • Conducted Web-based research • Interviews with - Resin producers - Packaging manufacturers - Brand owners - MRF operators - Reclaimers - Municipalities - Industry experts
Brief History of Curbside Recycling 1973: First program in California 1988: ~1,000 1992: Nearly 5,000 (a growth of more than 250% in 3 years!) 2002: 8,800 2011: 9,800+
Printed Paper Generation in MSW Stream 1960-2012 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 - 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012 Newspaper/Mechanical Papers Books/Magazines Office-Type Papers Standard Mail Other Commercial Printing EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES
2012 Total MSW Generation by Material Type EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES
2012 Total MSW Generation by Product Type EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES
The Evolution of Packaging Glass bottle, metal cap to PET bottle, PP cap Glass jars, metal cap to PET jar, PP cap
The Evolution of Packaging Glass bottle, metal cap to HDPE bottle, PP cap HDPE Bottle, PP Cap to multi-layer, flexible film pouch
The Evolution of Packaging From steel can, paper label adhesive to multi-layer, foil-lined flexible film pouch From glass jar, metal lid and paper label adhesive to multi- layer, multi-resin pouch with PP enclosure
The Evolution of Materials Use
A Precipitous Decline North American newsprint shipments in million metric tons: 2000: 15.8 2005: 12.7 2010: 7.8 2011: 7.3 2012: 6.7 2013: 6.4 This is a loss of 50 percent over eight years.
The Evolution of Materials Use Source: Chaz Miller, NW&RA
The Evolution of Packaging • Light-weighting & increasing recycled content • Projected increase in film packaging – “Containment format and packaging process of choice for the primary packaging of a broad range of products” – Americans to use nearly 33 BILLION more rigid plastic and flexible packages in 2017 than in 2012 – Flexible pack to rise 3.5% annually to more than 9 billion pounds in 2017.
What’s Flexible Film Packaging?
What’s Flexible Film Packaging?
What’s Flexible Film Packaging? “Smart Packaging” with temperature indicators and freshness monitors
What’s Flexible Film Packaging? • Technologically advanced • Multi-layer • Multi-resin • Sometimes with non-plastic materials such as foil • Barrier layers • Tie Layers
Environmental Drivers Fueling the Shift Flexible Film Pouches & Packaging Flexible Packaging Association www.flexpack.org
Market Drivers Fueling the Shift • Brand differentiation in an increasingly competitive environment • What do customers want? – Convenience is king – “On -the- go” lifestyles among increasingly time poor consumers – Trend of smaller, single-serving sizes • Performance is key – Highly technical – Logistical advantages – “Doesn’t matter if it’s sustainable if it doesn’t perform”
Sustainable Material Management Replacing all plastic packaging with non-plastic alternatives would require 4.5 times as much packaging material by weight, increasing the amount of packaging used in the U.S. by nearly 55 million tons
MSW Recycling Rates, 1960 to 2012 EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES
1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 - EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles 1980 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Plastics Generated, Recovered, & Discarded in MSW - 1980-2012 Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles 1990 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars Growing Opportunities HDPE Natural Bottles 2000 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging Generated (in thousands of tons) PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles 2005 Other Containers Recovered Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Discarded 2008 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles 2010 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles 2011 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles 2012 Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging
MSW Management in the U.S., 2012 Recovery 34.5% Discarded 53.8% Combustion with Energy Recovery 11.7%
We are sending money to the landfill Value of Unrecovered Material Recycling Rate Materials Paper 61% $3.1 Billion Aluminum Cans 65% $1.3 Billion Plastic Bottles 31% HDPE, 30% PET $1.6 Billion Steel Cans 65% $0.4 Billion Glass Bottles 28% $0.1 Billion Total $6.5 Billion
Recycling rates for selected products, 2011-2012 120 96.2 100 Recycling Rate (Percent) 80 72.5 70.6 67 57.3 60 44.6 40 34.2 29.1 28.6 20 2.5 0 Auto Batt. Newsprint Y ard Scraps Steel Cans UBC Tires HDPE Glass PET Food Scraps
It’s Also About Collection • Growing collection innovation • Wet/Dry collection growing – Taking the place of single-stream? • Sorting MSW – Montgomery, AL; San Jose, CA; Houston (?) • The “other stuff” • Different collection ideologies
Growth of Single-Stream Source: Government Advisory Associates, Inc., 2013
Single-Stream MRFs in the U.S. • Map
What MRFs Have to Do With It
What MRFs Have to Do With It • MRFs need to be flexible • Retrofitting and reconfiguring needs to be built into the regular capital cycle • “Mega - MRFs” and “Hub & Spoke” sorting taking hold in some areas • Plastics Recycling Facilities (PRFs) could be a solution here or overseas • Flexible packaging “not an issue” at the MRF level … yet
Growing the MRF • Republic Services has 32 single-stream MRFs, but, “Really only 18 that matter, meaning those 18 process 85% of the material we collect” • Waste Management has grown their single- stream recycling capacity by 30% over the last three years • ReCommunity operates 22 single-stream MRFs, no plans to build non-single-stream MRFs
Sortation Technology
Sorting It Out • There is no mechanical sortation technology on the market for flex film • Vacuum technology exists as a solution • PE film continues to be a challenge • Optical sortation is growing and will continue
Sorting It Out
The Role of Exports • Impacts of the Green Fence – Softened spot market – Changed bale composition • Material that is moving again, not necessarily directly to China – High-grading plastics before import to China reportedly happening – SE Asia the likely destination
The Road Forward • Domestic reclamation – Long term contracts needed to supply enough material to make investment cost-effective – Recycling is occurring – MRFs should move to capture material • Other recovery – Developing technology and markets – “One cog in an inter - connected system”
The Road Forward • Recovery is a priority – Domestic reclamation is occurring – but more material is needed – Communities looking to expand collection programs – Increased consumer education is needed • “If you bale it, they will come” – “As more of this material is produced, it becomes more an opportunity than a problem” – Lower-valued plastics can be viable feedstocks for entrepreneurial ventures
The Road Forward… Will Have Many Paths Other recovery Options – Energy Recovery and Plastics- to-Oil • Maturing industries • Economics only support use of waste plastics • Small-scale systems (<10K TPY) • Incubator markets for materials collection “One cog in an inter - connected system”
The Road Forward…
Thank You! Dylan de Thomas Editorial Director Resource Recycling, Inc. dylan@resource-recycling.com 503-309-5142 www.resource-recycling.com Special thanks to research and reporting teammate -- Amy Roth, Green Spectrum Consulting
Recommend
More recommend
