Direct Pak, city of Phoenix reclaim more than 16M pounds of PET

Direct Pack Inc. (DPI), a sustainable, fully circular, thermoformed plastic packaging manufacturer based in Azusa, California, has reclaimed more than 16 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic working with the city of Phoenix and the material recovery facilities (MRFs) in the region over the last two years.  

The Phoenix area, including Prescott, Peoria and Avondale, produces an estimated 1 million tons of waste each year and processes recyclables from more than 400,000 households. DPI says this is a significant opportunity to reclaim PET plastic and remanufacture it into brand-new packaging without using new material.  

"We don't want recycling to be a mystery," says Phoenix Public Works Director Joe Giudice. "We want every Phoenix resident to know what happens to the things they recycle – not only how they get sorted in our material recovery facilities, but also where they go after that, how our partners like Direct Pack process them and what the recycled items turn into."  

In addition to its annual waste production, the Phoenix area expects to produce an extra 2,000 tons of secondary material with the influx of visitors attending Super Bowl LVII and the surrounding activities, making this partnership even more important. Recycling and reclaiming PET plastic packaging and bottles during the event reduces the environmental impact compared with sending them to landfill.  

"DPI's partnership with Phoenix, its MRF operations and residents, is a remarkable success story for the recovery and reprocessing of recycled PET plastic packaging," says Craig Snedden, president of Direct Pack Inc. "Our goal is to keep as much recycled PET material out of landfills as possible by reclaiming it from MRFs and turning it into brand-new, certified food-grade packaging. Phoenix taking a leadership role in collecting PET packaging is critical to our ability to make plastic a truly circular material and we need more communities around the country to follow their lead."  

Meanwhile, Direct Pack Recycling (DPR) received a grant in the first round from The Recycling Partnership's PET Recycling Coalition to assist in the construction of a second PET reclamation facility in Mexicali, Mexico. The facility will source material from MRFs across the U.S. and produce an additional 15,000 tons of recycled content for new packaging. DPR specializes in recycling thermoformed PET packaging like cups, clamshells and trays, providing an important new outlet for nonbottle PET recycling.