Pennsylvania township joins pilot program to recycle flexible plastic

Palmer Township will join a handful of communities in the United States that will soon accept flexible plastic waste in its curbside recycling bins, reports WFMZ.com.

Starting May 1, Palmer residents can begin to include flexible plastic, such as bags for groceries, potato chips, cereal and more in their bins. TotalRecycling Inc., a division of Audubon, Pennsylvania-based JP Mascaro & Sons, will process the plastic at its Birdsboro plant in Berks County.

Single-use plastic that would have gone into landfills or perhaps wound up in the ocean will instead become material for decks, walkways and playground surfaces. “These are items that used to be considered contamination,” Cindy Oatis, Palmer’s recycling coordinator, said April 5 after a township board of supervisors meeting.

Oatis said the U.S. generates about 12 billion pounds of single-use plastic annually.

"This change is being driven by the consumer who does not want to be contributing to these seas of plastic," she said. Flexible plastic is the fastest-growing segment of the plastic packaging industry in the U.S., she told WFMZ.

The board of supervisors approved the plan after being assured that there will be no additional cost to taxpayers. The Palmer plan excludes rigid plastics, such as packaging for electronics, and flexible plastic will be accepted curbside but not at the Hartley Avenue recycling center.

"Consumers asked for a way to recycle," said T.J. Stinson of TotalRecycle. The company has been recovering materials for two years, he said, and it provides the only curbside solution for single-use plastic.

Demands from customers led to companies including Procter & Gamble Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Nestle USA to support the initiative to recycle single-use bendable plastic. The goal is to collect what would otherwise wind up as litter or in landfills and develop markets for the material.

Stinson said TotalRecycle can recover the single-use plastic and prepare it for markets in the form of a recovered product known as rFlex.