The US Flexible Film Initiative (USFFI) has announced its first offtake agreements for recycled flexible packaging, following the movement of more than 3 million pounds (1,361 tonnes) of material from California materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to reclaimers.
USFFI has partnered with Valemi and GreenWaste, which operate MRFs collecting residential recyclables in California, alongside reclaimers EFS Plastics and Merlin Plastics.
The material has been sent to reclaimers in the US and Canada and processed into a range of commodities. USFFI has subsequently facilitated offtake agreements supporting up to eight loads of recycled flexible packaging per month.
The initiative is initially focused on California and aims to test approaches to the collection, sorting and processing of flexible packaging at scale. There is the potential to expand into other states developing Extended Producer Responsibility programmes.
‘Important first step’
“Moving material successfully is an important first step, but the goal is to create a system that can keep that material moving,” said Maite Quinn-Richards, executive director of USFFI.
“These long-term agreements create greater certainty around supply, demand and economics, and the more companies that participate, the stronger that system becomes.”
EFS Plastics president and chief executive Martin Vogt said: “The funding that USFFI provides ensures EFS can process flexible film packaging and supports the development of markets for this post-consumer recycled resin.”
USFFI said information gathered through its first request for information (RFI) process helped shape the initial contracts and would inform future programme development.
Further RFIs issued
The organisation has now issued two further RFIs, seeking responses from California-based MRFs and from reclaimers and secondary processors able to receive material sourced from California MRFs.
The RFIs cover funding for sorting and baling recovered flexible films and packaging, the purchase of mixed flexible films and packaging as feedstock for secondary processing, and reporting on material quality, tonnage and recovery rates.
GreenWaste vice-president of post-collections Ricky Lopez said: “Innovation in resource recovery is core to what we do, and we’re excited to partner with USFFI to help lead the industry towards intentional recovery and recycling of flexible plastics.”
Emerald Packaging chief executive Kevin Kelly added: “Seeing that membership translate into real contracts with two MRFs and two reclaimers is exactly the outcome we hoped to help create. It shows circularity is achievable when recyclers can sell the material at a profit.”
