SPC and The Recycling Partnership collaborate on ASTRX initiative

Nonprofit organizations The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), Charlottesville, Virginia, and The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, have teamed up to create an initiative called Applying Systems Thinking to Recycling (ASTRX).

The organizations say they have drawn from their experience in packaging design and material recovery to create a system dedicated to “comprehensively mapping barriers and opportunities within the recycling landscape, then identifying tactics to advance the industry and deliver more high-quality recyclables to the supply chain.”

“Recycling exists to deliver material feedstocks back into the manufacturing process,” comments Nina Goodrich, executive director of the SPC. “Through ASTRX we will analyze the entire system and identify the most effective areas for improvement and intervention. In turn, this will lay the strategic foundation for bolstering supply and reaping both the environmental and economic benefits,” she adds.

Understanding the interplay between the “series of public and private sector subindustries that work together to create a recovered feedstock supply chain” can help improve recovery levels, the two organizations say.

“Recycling is a loosely connected, highly dependent system,” says Keefe Harrison, executive director of The Recycling Partnership. “By looking within and between each link in that system, we can route a considerably more informed and robust course of intervention.”

To fully capture the perspective of the entire recycling landscape, the ASTRX effort will involve other industry groups. “There’s no room for wishful thinking in this marketplace, and we expect this initiative to deliver real solutions,” says Steve Alexander, president of the Washington-based Association of Plastic Recyclers. “There are many companies and other entities operating in recycling today, and through ASTRX we can collaboratively create a comprehensive plan to shape the future of the U.S. recycling system.”