California funding goes to plastics, glass recyclers

The Sacramento-based California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has awarded $9 million in new California Climate Investments (CCIs) to three projects in Kern, San Joaquin, and Los Angeles counties.

CalRecycle’s Recycled Fiber Plastic and Glass Grant Program is part of CCI, a statewide initiative that taps into cap-and-trade dollars. CCI funding is directed toward projects that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the state’s recycling infrastructure. CalRecycle indicates the projects also are expected to create more than 200 jobs in the state.

Three companies or entities received the newly announced CCI funding:

• rPlanet Earth Los Angeles LLC has received $3 million to help build a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) reclaiming facility in Vernon, California, to process PET thermoforms and extrude them into new food-contact grade thermoformed packaging.
• Revolution Plastics LLC, based in Kern, California, has received $3 million to help it increase its collection capacity for low-density polyethylene (LDPE) agricultural film and irrigation tubing and to develop a facility in Bakersfield, California, to clean, process and remanufacture the film into plastic can liners, new mulch film or plastic lumber.
• SiONEER Stockton LLC has received $3 million to build a plant in Stockton to process recycled glass into a material that can replace fly ash (a coal combustion product) as an ingredient in the concrete manufacturing process.

“Recycling materials eliminates greenhouse gas emissions produced when mining and refining new materials,” says CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline. “These latest investments not only bring us closer to our recycling and greenhouse gas reduction goals but show how California’s core values of environmental protection, public health and safety, and economic vitality can coexist to benefit communities throughout our state.”

For 2016-17, $9 million was allocated to CalRecycle’s RFPG Grant Program. The agency indicates it received 13 eligible applications requesting $30.6 million in funding. It then granted funds to the three highest-scoring applicants based on criteria including greenhouse gas reductions, materials diverted from landfills, benefits to disadvantaged communities and project readiness.