Utah city partners with WM on film recycling pilot

The city of Orem, Utah, and Houston-based WM are partnering on a study to determine whether the firm can sort, bale and market plastic film.

From Aug. 15 through Nov. 15, the city has asked residents to include film plastics, including plastic grocery bags, food storage bags, film plastic packaging, mail packaging, newspaper bags and dry cleaning bags, in their single-stream collection bins, according to the city.

WM has installed new technology at its Salt Lake City Material Recycling Facility (MRF) to collect and bale these materials for sale to a manufacturer.

Speaking at an Orem City Council meeting earlier this year, Blake Leonelli, public sector solutions manager for WM, explained the rationale behind the pilot.

“What we were finding was there was an abundance of contamination coming through our recycling stream, and it really was made up of plastic film and plastic bags,” he said at a March 14 Orem City Council meeting.

Rather than continue to fight plastic film as a single-stream contaminant, Leonelli said the company decided to try to find a way to recycle it.

“We purchased technology, and we have put this in the process. We have found an outlet for this material,” he told city council. “We're excited to have you as a pilot. This is something that everybody should be excited about. And really, we see this as a revolutionary change as we know it when it relates to recycling.”

That outlet for the plastic film is likely Midland, Michigan-based Dow Inc. WM and Dow announced a partnership last fall taking aim at plastic film recycling.

The program involving Orem and the Salt Lake City MRF is one of several plastic film recycling pilots around the country. In addition to Orem, WM is piloting plastic film recycling in Hickory Hills, Michigan, and Oakwood Village, Ohio, where the company opened a new MRF in September.