Eastman Chemical Co. may be spending more than $1 billion to build chemical recycling plants worldwide, but at home it's facing a much more basic recycling conundrum beyond the molecular breakdown of polymers.
The town where it's based and where an $800 million chemical recycling plant is coming online recently decided to stop curbside recycling collection.
"To create and maintain effective and efficient operations, the city of Kingsport will shift from the curbside collection of recyclable material to … drop-off locations," the city website notes, saying it will save "more than $850,000 annually amid a collapsed market for recyclable material."
I mean, obviously it's cheaper to not provide a service, right? Kingsport's curbside collection hasn't been active since 2020.
So to help fill this hometown gap, Eastman has partnered with grocery store chain Food City to provide recycling collection bins at Kingsport stores. Eastman will collect, sort and process materials in the "Shop, Recycle, Repeat" program through the mixed plastics processing facility that is part of its chemical recycling plant.
"We're excited to unveil the first recycling bins and are so proud that they were designed and created by talented Eastman craftspeople who work at our facility in Kingsport," Brad Lich, Eastman executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in a news release. "This partnership is an important step in our region to bring additional plastics recycling options to our community."