Dive Brief:

• The three-month experimental Energy Bag pilot program in Citrus Heights, CA, collected 6,000 pounds of difficult-to-recycle materials. 
• The project was aimed at recycling packaging and plastics not generally accepted in the curbside recycling bin.
• Households were provided with purple bags for the items. 30% of city residents participated in the program; 78% of those participants said they would likely enroll in the program the next time it is offered. 

Dive Insight:

Materials collected for the program were processed at Agilyx in Tigard, OR, where they were transformed into synthetic crude via pyrolysis. 

Jeff Wooster, the global sustainability leader at Dow Packaging, said, “The pilot proved that resource recovery of non-recycled plastics is a viable municipal process.” Dow was one of the sponsors of the program.