Thin, flexible plastics — like plastic bags, food wrap and packing material — are among the least likely to get recycled. They get tangled up in the machinery at recycling facilities and can break the equipment. A new facility in Fayette County claims to be one of the largest recyclers of this kind of plastic in the world.
The company NOVA Chemicals usually makes chemicals for new, non-recycled plastic. But it said this facility will help meet their customers’ demand for recycled, food-safe plastic. The plastic from NOVA can be used to make everything from frozen food bags to trash liners, to plastic decking.
Creating that demand for recycled plastic film has been an issue for a while. Diego Alzate-Sanchez is an assistant chemistry professor at Northeastern University.
“It's so, so cheap to make plastics from oil that, like any recycling technology, hardly competes against that. So at the end of the day, is not like a chemistry problem, it's more like a market problem," said Alzate-Sanchez.
Alan Schrob is the director of mechanical recycling for the new plant, called NOVA Circular Solutions. He said the company is feeling good about the ability for that recycled plastic market to grow.
"There's a lot of work going on throughout the industry to ensure that plastic products get recycled — whether they're extended producer responsibility programs that are being enacted or different states that are requiring recycled content as part of their plastics packaging," he said. "Those things in and of themselves are creating a market by which the products that we're going to make in Connersville and any future facility we build absolutely necessary."
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Vice President Greg DeKunder said, at least for right now, the facility is focused on recycling the plastic wrapped around pallets that are shipped to retail stores. It’s clear, it’s less likely to get contaminated than something like a grocery bag, and there’s a lot of it nearby.
“Think about Cincinnati, think about Chicago. Think about, you know, Columbus, Ohio. These are areas that have a lot of retail stores — because that's where people live in, a lot of distribution centers. So our feed stock, then, is very close and local," DeKunder said.
All of that plastic gets shredded, sorted, cleaned and made into pellets that plastic-makers can use in their products.
But you’re unlikely to see 100 percent recycled plastic wrap on the shelves. DeKunder said in order for products like this to work, manufacturers generally blend in only 20 to 50 percent recycled content.
By 2026, NOVA hopes to produce more than 110 million pounds of recycled plastic per year.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or on Signal at IPBenvironment.01. Follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.