rPlanet receives California funding boost

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has approved a $2 million California Climate Investment loan to rPlanet Los Angeles LLC to help pay for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling infrastructure at its new facility in Vernon, California.

The financing from CalRecycle’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Loan Program is earmarked to allow rPlanet to:

• transform 1,000 tons of plastic scrap into packaging each year;
• create 52 new jobs; and
• reduce 1,500 metric tons equivalent worth of of CO₂ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually.

“Projects like this show California has committed partners in the private sector willing to make substantial investments to combat climate change and protect the future of our people and our planet,” says CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline. “These public-private partnerships are the foundation of California’s global leadership on climate change and sustainability and will be crucial to our future success in these areas.”

rPlanet, on its website, says it converts scrap PET bottles into food-contact-grade packaging products, including bottle preforms, extruded roll stock and thermoformed packaging.

CalRecycle’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Loan Program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program designed to put billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment, with a focus on what the agency calls disadvantaged communities. The loan program seeks to reduce GHG emissions by providing direct, low-interest loans to expand capacity or establish new facilities in California that use recycled materials in their manufacturing processes.

In addition to conserving natural resources like oil, manufacturing products from recycled materials requires less energy and results in fewer GHG emissions than making products from virgin materials, says CalRecycle.