EFS-plastics receives film packaging capture grant

The Recycling Partnership’s Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition has awarded its first film packaging capture grant to EFS-plastics, an Ontario-based company that specializes in plastic film recycling.

According to a news release from The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, the $200,000 grant will pay for new shredding equipment for EFS-plastics’ facility in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, increasing the facility’s recycling capacity by an additional 560,000 pounds per month and laying the groundwork to scale residential film and flexibles plastics recycling. In addition, the grant helps to fund testing at EFS-plastics’ Listowel, Ontario, facility to reprocess material into pellets for new products and packaging.

“Recycling more film will have benefits for the recycling system as a whole,” says EFS-plastics Director of Business Development and Procurement Eadaoin Quinn. “Film is a contaminant for many recyclers, but if we can turn more of it into new products, we can reduce the burden on [material recovery facilities] caused by film while also putting more plastics back into new products rather than into a landfill or incinerator.”

The Recycling Partnership says its Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition, part of its Pathway to Circularity Initiative, includes a broad group of industry stakeholders seeking to increase curbside collection of film recycling and support end markets for film and flexible products. The coalition’s primary focus is to prove efficient and effective collection through pilot projects as well as infrastructure and optimization grants, complementing The Recycling Partnership’s grant programs for material recovery facilities.

The Recycling Partnership tells Recycling Today its Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition plans to award up to four additional grants this year, with more to come in 2023.

“We are thrilled to announce this grant to EFS-plastics, an important testing ground and milestone in the coalition’s mission to increase collection of film and flexible packaging,” says Sarah Dearman, vice president of circular ventures at The Recycling Partnership. “The partnership believes that a successful system of the future will address recyclability challenges for all materials, and with so much of this valuable material found in every U.S. household, investments to support scaling film and flexible plastic recycling are important and necessary.”

The mission-driven work of the Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition is supported by contributions from organizations representing all segments of the material’s value chain, including steering committee members American Chemistry Council, Dow, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, The Kraft Heinz Co., Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and the Walmart Foundation. Other Coalition members include Amcor, Amp Robotics, Berry Global, Campbell Soup Co., Flexible Packaging Association, Happy Family Organics, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., Kellogg Company, Keurig Dr Pepper, Mars Inc., Mondelez International, Nature Valley and Nestlé. The coalition is advised by industry leaders Association of Plastic Recyclers and Sustainable Packaging Coalition.