Day: March 5, 2020

The Recycling Partnership and others are calling for more investment in sorting #5 plastics and some buyers say they can't get enough. Booming virgin production makes this an expensive proposition.

Many MRFs aren’t investing in robotic or optical sorting fit for pulling out polypropylene (among other materials) or they aren’t connected to buyers interested in the material, according to Harrison. That's why the nonprofit plans to launch a Polypropylene Recycling Coalition (originally called the Polypropylene Industry Council) representing local government members, MRF operators and manufacturers to address the problem.

“You can’t solve this from just a design point of view and you can’t just label your way out of this," said Harrison.

Recent research by Closed Loop Partners also notes how many MRFs lack the necessary technology to sort polypropylene. Their work concluded that, based on calculations using a five-year trailing average for PP prices, it takes two to five years to see a return on investment for the appropriate equipment.​

But Greenpeace and Dell question whether this kind of investment is worthwhile without stronger pricing and a larger-scale investment in the entire system. Last month, Greenpeace reported how much of the plastic actually gets recycled and pointed to a wide gap in changing that situation.