Making Sense of the Mix: The Future of the Curbside Bin Dylan de - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Making Sense of the Mix: The Future of the Curbside Bin

Dylan de Thomas Resource Recycling, Inc.

What’s Going to Be in the Bin?

• What’s the mix today?
• What’s changing in materials

use?

• What does it mean?
• How will it be recovered?
• The road forward

Methodology/Sources

• EPA 2012 MSW Characterization Report
• Conducted Web-based research
• Interviews with
• Resin producers
• Packaging manufacturers
• Brand owners
• MRF operators
• Reclaimers
• Municipalities
• Industry experts

Brief History of Curbside Recycling

1973: First program in California 1988: ~1,000 1992: Nearly 5,000

(a growth of more than 250% in 3 years!)

2002: 8,800 2011: 9,800+

• 2,000

4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012

Printed Paper Generation in MSW Stream 1960-2012

Newspaper/Mechanical Papers Books/Magazines Office-Type Papers Standard Mail Other Commercial Printing EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES

2012 Total MSW Generation by Material Type

EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES

2012 Total MSW Generation by Product Type

EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES

The Evolution of Packaging

Glass bottle, metal cap to PET bottle, PP cap Glass jars, metal cap to PET jar, PP cap

The Evolution of Packaging

Glass bottle, metal cap to HDPE bottle, PP cap HDPE Bottle, PP Cap to multi-layer, flexible film pouch

The Evolution of Packaging

From steel can, paper label adhesive to multi-layer, foil-lined flexible film pouch From glass jar, metal lid and paper label adhesive to multi- layer, multi-resin pouch with PP enclosure

The Evolution of Materials Use

A Precipitous Decline

North American newsprint shipments in million metric tons: 2000: 15.8 2005: 12.7 2010: 7.8 2011: 7.3 2012: 6.7 2013: 6.4 This is a loss of 50 percent over eight years.

The Evolution of Materials Use

Source: Chaz Miller, NW&RA

The Evolution of Packaging

• Light-weighting & increasing recycled content
• Projected increase in film packaging

– “Containment format and packaging process of choice for the primary packaging of a broad range

• f products”

– Americans to use nearly 33 BILLION more rigid plastic and flexible packages in 2017 than in 2012 – Flexible pack to rise 3.5% annually to more than 9 billion pounds in 2017.

What’s Flexible Film Packaging?

What’s Flexible Film Packaging?

What’s Flexible Film Packaging?

“Smart Packaging” with temperature indicators and freshness monitors

What’s Flexible Film Packaging?

• Technologically advanced
• Multi-layer
• Multi-resin
• Sometimes with non-plastic materials such as

foil

• Barrier layers
• Tie Layers

Environmental Drivers Fueling the Shift

Flexible Film Pouches & Packaging

Flexible Packaging Association www.flexpack.org

Market Drivers Fueling the Shift

• Brand differentiation in an increasingly competitive

environment

• What do customers want?

– Convenience is king – “On-the-go” lifestyles among increasingly time poor consumers – Trend of smaller, single-serving sizes

• Performance is key

– Highly technical – Logistical advantages – “Doesn’t matter if it’s sustainable if it doesn’t perform”

Sustainable Material Management

Replacing all plastic packaging with non-plastic alternatives would require 4.5 times as much packaging material by weight, increasing the amount of packaging used in the U.S. by nearly 55 million tons

MSW Recycling Rates, 1960 to 2012

EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES

Growing Opportunities

EPA MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: 2012 FACTS AND FIGURES

• 1,000

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging PET Bottles/Jars HDPE Natural Bottles Other Containers Bags, Sacks, Wraps Other Plastic Packaging 1980 1990 2000 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012

Plastics Generated, Recovered, & Discarded in MSW - 1980-2012

(in thousands of tons)

Generated Recovered Discarded

MSW Management in the U.S., 2012

Combustion with Energy Recovery 11.7% Discarded 53.8% Recovery 34.5%

We are sending money to the landfill

Material Recycling Rate Value of Unrecovered Materials

Paper 61% $3.1 Billion Aluminum Cans 65% $1.3 Billion Plastic Bottles 31% HDPE, 30% PET $1.6 Billion Steel Cans 65% $0.4 Billion Glass Bottles 28% $0.1 Billion Total $6.5 Billion

Recycling rates for selected products, 2011-2012

96.2 72.5 57.3 70.6 67 44.6 28.6 34.2 29.1 2.5

20 40 60 80 100 120

Auto Batt. Newsprint Y ard Scraps Steel Cans UBC Tires HDPE Glass PET Food Scraps

Recycling Rate (Percent)

It’s Also About Collection

• Growing collection innovation
• Wet/Dry collection growing

– Taking the place of single-stream?

• Sorting MSW

– Montgomery, AL; San Jose, CA; Houston (?)

• The “other stuff”
• Different collection ideologies

Growth of Single-Stream

Source: Government Advisory Associates, Inc., 2013

Single-Stream MRFs in the U.S.

• Map

What MRFs Have to Do With It

What MRFs Have to Do With It

• MRFs need to be flexible
• Retrofitting and reconfiguring needs to be

built into the regular capital cycle

• “Mega-MRFs” and “Hub & Spoke” sorting

taking hold in some areas

• Plastics Recycling Facilities (PRFs) could be a

solution here or overseas

• Flexible packaging “not an issue” at the MRF

level … yet

Growing the MRF

• Republic Services has 32 single-stream MRFs,

but, “Really only 18 that matter, meaning those 18 process 85% of the material we collect”

• Waste Management has grown their single-

stream recycling capacity by 30% over the last three years

• ReCommunity operates 22 single-stream

MRFs, no plans to build non-single-stream MRFs

Sortation Technology

Sorting It Out

• There is no mechanical sortation

technology on the market for flex film

• Vacuum technology exists as a

solution

• PE film continues to be a challenge
• Optical sortation is growing and will

continue

Sorting It Out

The Role of Exports

• Impacts of the Green Fence

– Softened spot market – Changed bale composition

• Material that is moving again, not necessarily

directly to China

– High-grading plastics before import to China reportedly happening – SE Asia the likely destination

The Road Forward

• Domestic reclamation

– Long term contracts needed to supply enough material to make investment cost-effective – Recycling is occurring – MRFs should move to capture material

• Other recovery

– Developing technology and markets – “One cog in an inter-connected system”

The Road Forward

• Recovery is a priority

– Domestic reclamation is occurring – but more material is needed – Communities looking to expand collection programs – Increased consumer education is needed

• “If you bale it, they will come”

– “As more of this material is produced, it becomes more an

• pportunity than a problem”

– Lower-valued plastics can be viable feedstocks for entrepreneurial ventures

The Road Forward… Will Have Many Paths

Other recovery Options

– Energy Recovery and Plastics- to-Oil

• Maturing industries
• Economics only support use of

waste plastics

• Small-scale systems (<10K TPY)
• Incubator markets for materials

collection

“One cog in an inter-connected system”

The Road Forward…

Thank You!

Dylan de Thomas Editorial Director Resource Recycling, Inc. dylan@resource-recycling.com 503-309-5142 www.resource-recycling.com Special thanks to research and reporting teammate -- Amy Roth, Green Spectrum Consulting