J.P. Mascaro & Sons adds township to flexible packaging recycling program

J.P. Mascaro & Sons, Audubon, Pennsylvania, has announced that as part of its contract for the curbside collection of recyclables, South Heidelberg Township, Pennsylvania, will include flexible plastic packaging (FPP). 

J.P. Mascaro & Sons and its TotalRecycle single-stream material recovery facility (MRF) in Exeter Township are leading a pilot program to demonstrate the viability of processing FPP at automated MRFs and marketing the recycled product, known as rFlex, to end users. The company is participating in the Materials Recovery for the Future (MRFF) initiative in which industry associations and companies have awarded a $2.6 million grant to J.P. Mascaro & Sons to install optical sorting equipment at its TotalRecycle facility to enable it to recycle FPP. FPP, including plastic bags, wraps and pouches, represents a growing portion of the residential household waste stream. 

Collection of FPP as a recyclable will begin in South Heidelberg Township at the end of December, after J.P. Mascaro & Sons notifies all township households of the types of FPP that will now be collected. J.P. Mascaro & Sons says it expects the pilot program will generate important data to show interested municipalities that FPP recycling is possible and economical and determine whether there is a market for rFlex.