Plastics News - May 20, 2019 - 1

May 20, 2019  PlasticsNews.com

$19.95

RECYCLERS RANKING 2019

ACC pushes back
against claims
Report says up to 3,000 people die a
day from waste management problems
By Jim Johnson
Plastics News Staff

In it together
Speakers: Consumers, brand owners,
plastics processors all play major
roles in increasing recycled content
By Jim Johnson
Plastics News Staff
National Harbor, Md. - Plastics recycling really does not start,
or stop, with plastics recyclers.
For recovery and reuse of plastics to ultimately advance, it will
need help from people all along
the life cycle of products, including plastic processors, brand owners, consumers and the recyclers
themselves, a group close to the
issue believes.
Plastics recyclers, said President Steve Alexander of the Association of Plastic Recyclers trade
group, can handle any type of resin. But, he said, there has to be an
end market for the output.
"If there's no demand for that
material, if there's no financing going back the other way, what are
we doing? We're collecting, we're
sorting, we're processing trash.
Who the hell would build a business model based on that?
"So we all have a vested interest in increasing demand for the

material that's out there," he said
during a panel discussion at the
recent Plastics Recycling Conference and Trade Show in National
Harbor near Washington, D.C.
As sustainability director for
Berry Global Group Inc., Rob
Flores said his company is fielding
an ever-increasing number of inquiries regarding recycled content
in its products.
And he does not mind the added
attention one bit.
"As a packaging and plastic
parts manufacturer, we want to
partner with our customers to see
how we can help them," Flores
said. "When I think about our customers, where they spend their
time, I'm actually glad that all of
this attention has come up around
packaging waste recently because
our customers really weren't
thinking about us too much."
But now they are. And they are
asking questions.
This engagement by consumer brand companies is helping tie
See Recycling, Page 15

TOP 10
RECYCLERS (IN POUNDS)
1. KW PLASTICS RECYCLING

570 MILLION

2. WASTE MANAGEMENT
RECYCLE AMERICA LLC

525 MILLION

3. B. SCHOENBERG & CO.
INC.

486 MILLION
4. B&B PLASTICS INC

440 MILLION
5. MERLIN PLASTICS
ALBERTA INC.

365 MILLION
6. GREEN LINE POLYMERS

331 MILLION
7. CLEAN TECH INC.

300 MILLION*
8. RJM INTERNATIONAL INC.

255 MILLION
9. JOE'S PLASTICS INC.

230 MILLION*
10. GREENPATH
RECOVERY INC.

211 MILLION*
*Plastics News estimate

MORE COVERAGE INSIDE: PAGES 9-16

A new study in Europe is claiming up to 3,000 of the world's
poorest people - an average
of one every 30 seconds - die
every day due to waste management problems, including plastic
pollution.
But a trade group representing
the plastics industry in the United States is pushing back against
the assertions made by Tearfund,
a relief and development agency.
Tearfund, in its warning, has attracted the backing of well-known
natural historian David Attenborough, who is calling the situation
"one of the most pressing problems of today."
The new report, called "No
Time to Waste: Tackling the Plastic Pollution Crisis Before It's Too
Late," talks about all uncollected
trash that's dumped or burned

and puts a heavy emphasis on
plastics.
Key factors leading to deaths
are "air pollution from burnt
waste, diarrhoeal disease caused
by dumped waste and mosquito-borne disease caused by
dumped waste," Teddington, England-based Tearfund states.
Tearfund said it is basing its
numbers on "published data, academic research and expert opinion."
The group said that the death
toll is between 400,000 and 1 million people each year due to mismanaged waste, and the estimate
of one death every 30 seconds is
based on that higher estimate.
Tearfund, through its new Rubbish Campaign, wants companies
to disclose the number of single-use plastic products they sell
by next year and commit to a 50
percent reduction in that number
See Waste, Page 30

Study blames plastic
for climate change
By Jim Johnson
Plastics News Staff
A new study claims growing use
of plastics is having a devastating
impact through climate change,
but a trade group representing
the industry counters with an exact opposite view.
"Plastic & Climate: The Hidden
Costs of a Plastic Planet" is a new
report from a handful of environmental groups, including the Center for International Environmental Law, Break Free From Plastic
and 5 Gyres.
The report said it studied
greenhouse gas emissions "at
each state of the plastic life cycle"
and concluded rapid expansion
of the plastic industry during the
past 10 years, as well as future

growth, means greenhouse gas
impacts are accelerating.
"It has long been clear that
plastic threatens the global environment and puts human health
at risk. This report demonstrates
that plastic, like the rest of the
fossil economy, is putting the climate at risk as well," CIEL President Carroll Muffett said in a
statement.
"Because the drivers of the climate crisis and the plastic crisis
are closely linked, so too are their
solutions: Humanity must end its
reliance on fossil fuels and on fossil plastics that the planet can no
longer afford," Muffett continued.
The plastics division of the
American Chemistry Council
pushed back against the report,
See Climate, Page 30

SEPTEMBER 9-11 CHICAGO, IL
More info on page 31

http://www.PlasticsNews.com

Plastics News - May 20, 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News - May 20, 2019