Dive Brief:

• A pilot program that recycles difficult to recycle plastics will not be affected by Waste Management’s decision to cease operations at a waste-to-oil plant in Portland, OR.
• Plastics collected through the ‘Energy Bag’ program are being processed at a research and development facility in Tigard, OR.
• The program uses specialized purple bags to collect hard-to-recycle plastics in residential trash pick-ups. The pilot project is unique to residents in Citrus Heights, CA.

Dive Insight:

Dow Chemical Co. partnered with Republic Services Inc. and the Flexible Packaging Association in support of the recycling experiment. The purple collection bags are collected and put into single-stream recycling containers alongside other recyclables. Employees then separate the materials and send the purple bags  to the Agilyx recycling facility.

If the project is deemed a success, the program could expand to other regions. Waste Management decided to close the Portland, OR location until better technology can be implemented at the site. The plant was converting the hard-to-recycle plastics into crude oil.