A group of stakeholders in the plastics recycling industry have released a set of resources designed to help communities recycle more plastics.
“Plastics Recycling Terms & Tools” have been designed to make it easier for consumers to recycle plastics and to help improve the nationwide tracking of the types and amount of plastics recycled by providing two sets of common plastics recycling terms (outreach and commodities) for use throughout the United States and Canada.
Stacy Luddy of Moore Recycling Associates Inc., Sonoma, California, introduced the resources at the annual Resource Recycling Conference, Sept. 15-17, 2014, in New Orleans.
“Because communities across the country use slightly different terms to refer to the same things, consumers often are unnecessarily confused about what can and cannot be recycled,” according to a news release issued by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Washington. “To help reduce confusion, Terms & Tools contain a common set of outreach terms (a glossary or lexicon) for community recycling coordinators to use when educating residents about what plastics to recycle.”
To help communities adopt the common language, an online tool aids in matching the plastics collected in a community recycling program with a common set of outreach terms. The terms, a corresponding gallery of images and an option to create a flyer (all available at no cost at www.RecycleYourPlastics.org) are designed to be used by community recyclers in developing education and outreach materials, the ACC says.
“Public opinion surveys and everyday experience demonstrate that many people are confused about which plastics are accepted for recycling in their community,” Patty Moore, president and CEO of Moore Recycling, says. “The new plastics recycling terms were generated through extensive surveys and feedback from recycling professionals to get everyone speaking the same language so we can collect more of the plastics that reclaimers need.”
In addition to the outreach terms, the Terms & Tools contain a set of recycled plastics commodity terms (http://www.recyclemoreplastic.org/images/termspdf.jpg) that will enable more accurate characterization of recycled plastic commodities and improve tracking of plastics recycling, the ACC says. The commodity terms, created by Moore Recycling in partnership with the Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers (APR), Washington, D.C., are intended to create greater efficiencies in the buying and selling of used plastics.
The goals of the Terms & Tools are to boost diversion rates of clean material, increase the types and amounts of plastics recycled, decrease contamination and help meet the demand for recycled plastics, the ACC says.
“We’re very excited to make the Terms & Tools available to communities nationwide,” says Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the ACC. “Retailers, brand owners and packaging designers want to use more recycled plastics, and this is an important step toward increasing collection of these valuable post-use materials.”
The Terms & Tools were created with guidance from an advisory committee of representatives from throughout the plastics recycling value chain. In addition, Moore Recycling solicited input through a survey of recycling professionals and through Re-TRAC Connect, an online tracking software for the recycling industry.
Moore Recycling Associates oversees the Terms & Tools, which is sponsored by the ACC’s Plastics Division.