Project overview
Recycle BC began collecting a new material category as part of a research and development (R&D) project: Other Flexible Plastic Packaging (OFPP). The key objective of the R&D project was to determine how Recycle BC can best manage and recycle this complex plastic packaging.
How It Worked
Starting June 2018, Other Flexible Plastic Packaging was collected at Recycle BC depots and London Drugs stores. During that time, material unable to be recycled was recovered and produced into engineered fuel, an energy product engineered to exact specifications to produce a fuel that is a direct replacement for traditional, non-renewable energy resources, such as coal.
Research and Development Timeline
2017 – Planning starts for Other Flexible Plastic Packaging research and development project with Merlin Plastics.
2018 – Soft launch of research and development project with select depots.
2019 – All Recycle BC depots begin collecting Other Flexible Plastic Packaging.
2019 to 2022 – Amass enough clean and correctly sorted Other Flexible Plastic Packaging for Merlin Plastics to do tests; conduct research and development on material recyclability.
2022 – Merlin Plastics is successful in recycling Other Flexible Plastic Packaging. Recycle BC confirms comingling of Plastic Bags and Overwrap and Other Flexible Plastic Packaging categories.
2023 – Launch new Flexible Plastics material category at Recycle BC depots and London Drugs.
Results
In 2022, we confirmed Other Flexible Plastic Packaging was being recycled. Our plastics end market is making a recycled plastic pellet from the Other Flexible Plastic Packaging collected. This pellet is a commodity made of a combination of higher and lower quality plastics that turn it into a usable feedstock for new product manufacturing. This is a step up the Pollution Prevention Hierarchy above engineered fuel, moving the end fate from recovery to recycling, consistent with the end fate of plastic bags and overwrap.
We combined the two previous material categories of Plastic Bags and Overwrap and Other Flexible Plastic Packaging into one collection category – Flexible Plastics – because the end fate of these two material categories is now the same. Merlin is managing all this material through the same recycling process, so can be collected together at Recycle BC depots and London Drugs stores.
