Chemical recyclers say MRFs are an important source of feedstock, but how their demand will affect recycled plastic markets remains unclear
By Megan Quinn, Waste Dive, April 1, 2024
When Rumpke Waste & Recycling set out to design its latest recycling center, the company planned to have the latest technology to pick out extremely specific items — partly in response to rising demand for “hard-to-recycle” materials.
Rumpke expects more chemical recycling companies will express interest in buying those hard-to-recycle materials once their plants come online in the next few years.
Under its current operations across its multiple MRFs, Rumpke is not yet baling and selling any material to chemical recyclers but it recently signed an agreement to send bales of colored PET to Eastman’s planned facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, in the coming months.
Eastman says it plans to turn the material it receives from Rumpke into “virgin quality polyesters” to be used in packaging applications. Rumpke’s 200,000-square-foot facility in Columbus, Ohio, is expected to have 19 optical sorters and other artificial intelligence-assisted technology that could help with the process.
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Chemical recycling proponents are investing in major projects to scale up the technology. Yet lingering policy and business factors will affect the trajectory of this fast-developing recycling sector.
Some chemical recyclers have already announced agreements with major brands to use chemically recycled plastic in everything from reusable water bottles to food packaging, and some of those items are already available on store shelves in limited applications.
At the same time, chemical recyclers are continuing to ink deals with MRF operators, private companies, and specialty collection partnerships to source enough material to fulfill their production promises.
Such partnerships could soon represent a turning point for how MRFs and other collectors process, market, and sell plastics that are currently considered waste or have very limited markets, said Jeff Snyder, Rumpke’s director of recycling.
