
Global chemical and plastics firm Dow, Illinois-based Reynolds Consumer Products and California-based ByFusion have announced a new business agreement that continues their collaboration in the Boise, Idaho, region to what they call hard-to-recycle plastics from the landfill.
Typically, the term “hard-to-recycle plastics” is referred to discarded packaging that is unwelcome in curbside recycling programs, often because there is no nearby plastic flake or pellet market to make mechanically sorting it worthwhile.
The agreement pertains to a demonstration project that began in July 2021 to collect plastic scrap from the community through the Hefty EnergyBag program and convert the materials into ByBlocks, a plastic building product made by ByFusion.
The new agreement “signifies a substantial milestone for ByFusion’s Blocker technology as an effective mechanical recycling process and extends the collection for another year with the ultimate goal of increasing circular solutions in Idaho,” the companies say.
Since July 2021, the ByFusion pilot project has collected what the companies call hard-to-recycle plastic through Boise’s existing Hefty EnergyBag program and converted the material into ByBlocks. “The pilot phase aimed to create new, circular uses for up to 72 tons of hard-to-recycle plastics and within a year has exceeded that objective with 80 tons repurposed to date,” Dow says in a statement.
“ByFusion is thrilled with the results from our ongoing partnership with the Hefty EnergyBag program and Dow,” ByFusion CEO Heidi Kujawa says. “After seeing the impressive results from the Boise community, I’m confident about our ability to meet our goal of placing a [ByBlocks] Blocker System in every city.”
In February, the city of Boise unveiled a new park bench made of ByBlocks. Dow says ByBlocks also can be used to “create community infrastructure like create perimeter walls, privacy fencing, sound walls, bus stations, dumpster enclosures, storage facilities, and residential projects and much more.”
“After a successful first year, we now have a proven solution to prevent more plastic from ending up in landfills,” Boise Public Works Commissioner Jennifer Ellis says. “We’re enabling sustainable development in Boise while encouraging recycling in our community.”
Via the Hefty EnergyBag program in the Boise area, which began in 2018 , community members purchase orange bags at stores in the region and place plastic packaging not welcome in recycling bins into those bags for curbside pickup. Haulers pick up and deliver the bags to local recycling facilities, including ByFusion.
“Extending the opportunity for a community to continue to capture valuable plastic material to provide a best-use alternative is inspiring,” says Danielle Chatman-Moore, North American sustainability manager for packaging and specialty plastics at Dow.
“Across all Hefty EnergyBag projects in Boise, that brings the total material diverted to over 1,000 tons since the initial launch in this community," says Lisa Burns, senior vice president of sustainability with Reynolds Consumer Products. "I’m happy to see such a positive example of the program in action, and I’m eager to continue exploring new end-usage opportunities in other communities.”
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