
Preserve, a consumer products company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is partnering with renewable plastics manufacturer UrthPact LLC, Leominster. Massachusetts, to provide a new line of single use plastic cutlery that will be made from recycled plastic.
Paul Boudreau, CEO of UrthPact, says his company was chosen by Preserve to manufacture the cutlery and dispensers, all made from recycled polypropylene plastic. The product line will be rolled out in a six-store pilot program this January prior to the launch of a nationwide program starting March 1, 2017.
“We're excited to be working with Preserve to launch this new line of earth-friendly cutlery manufactured entirely from recycled #5 (polypropylene) plastic,” says Boudreau. “So much of this kind of plastic still ends up in landfills, so we're doing everything we can to get it out of the waste disposal chain and recycle it for good use.”
The cutlery begins with 100 percent recycled polypropylene resin, and has been designed to be part of Preserve's Gimme 5 plastic recycling program. Introduced in 2007, the Gimme 5 program enables consumers to recycle their polypropylene plastic products at recycling bins located at a number of retail establishments throughout the New England area. The reclaimed plastic is then recycled into new recycled-content plastic products.
Preserve notes that consumers unable to take advantage of Gimme 5’s recycling bins can mail their plastic products back to Preserve so they can be kept out of landfills and remanufactured into new recyclable products.
The partnership between the two companies began about two years ago when Boudreau approached Preserve with a biodegradable, compostable plastic compound.
“As we learned more about UrthPact, we saw their integrity and that commitment to creating something environmentally-sustainable,” says Eric Hudson, founder and CEO of Preserve. We also saw their capability from a manufacturing standpoint, so we teamed up for this major recycled plastic cutlery program as a place to start.”
Boudreau says he sees the retail grocery chain cutlery program as an opportunity to get environmentally friendly, sustainably produced plastic products front-and-center in the public eye. Boudreau and Hudson also say they see the potential for new products and are actively looking for new ways to partner in 2017, including producing a new line of plastic cutlery that will be biodegradable and compostable in industrial composting facilities.
Latest from Recycling Today
- PureCycle to supply PureFive resin to P&G
- Sustane enters pyrolysis oil offtake agreement with BASF
- Curbside Management acquiring Sonoco recycling facility
- Commentary: Why PVC recycling can only scale with a systemic approach
- Untha opens Technology Innovation Center
- Recology releases 2025 sustainability report
- Beauty packaging nonprofit Pact Collective releases 2024 Impact Report
- Cascades sells South Carolina tissue mill