The US Flexible Film Initiative (USFFI), a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization working to demonstrate scalable solutions for the recovery and recycling of flexible plastic packaging, has awarded its first round of contracts. Through this initial round, USFFI has partnered with Valemi Inc. and Green91²Ö¿â, two companies with Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) collecting residential recyclables in California, as well as EFS Plastics and Merlin Plastics, two plastic film reclaimers. To date, USFFI has moved more than 3 million pounds of flexible plastic packaging from California MRF collection programs to reclaimers in the US and Canada for processing. Following the successful completion of these loads into a variety of commodities, USFFI has facilitated offtake agreements supporting up to eight loads per month of recycled flexible plastic.
Consistent with USFFIâs mission, the awards are intended to help test and demonstrate approaches that can support the collection, sorting, and processing of flexible plastic packaging at scale. The initiative is initially focused on California, with the potential to scale to other states with emerging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs. âMoving material successfully is an important first step, but the goal is to create a system that can keep that material moving,â said Maite Quinn-Richards, Executive Director of USFFI. âThese long-term agreements create greater certainty around supply, demand and economics, and the more companies that participate, the stronger that system becomes.â
Flexible packaging plays an important role in delivering safe, convenient products while also helping to reduce food waste. However, recognizing the infrastructure and resource challenges facing municipal recycling programs in the U.S., USFFI is focused on helping advance solutions. âThe funding that USFFI provides ensures EFS can process flexible film packaging and supports the development of markets for this PCR resin,â said Martin Vogt, President and CEO of EFS Plastics.
This commitment to multi-year contracts with material recovery facilities (MRFs), flexible plastic processors, and recyclers reflects USFFIâs goal of helping the industry move toward a model where flexible films are intentionally collected alongside other recyclables and given a next life. “Innovation in resource recovery is core to what we do at Green91²Ö¿â, and we’re excited to partner with USFFI to help lead the industry toward intentional recovery and recycling of flexible plastics. This partnership is one of the key ways Green91²Ö¿â is investing in innovative new approaches to achieve sustainability goals for our customers and communities,” said Ricky Lopez, VP of Post-Collections at Green91²Ö¿â.