Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
August 15, 2019 04:32 PM

Envision Plastics pushes forward with food-contact recycled plastic packaging

Jim Johnson
Staff Writer
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Consolidated Container Corp. expects demand for its OceanBound brand of recycled high density polyethylene to increase now that the company has received clearance for food contact from the federal government.

    CCC, through its Envision Plastics recycling subsidiary, uses plastic collected within about 30 miles, or 50 kilometers, of waterways to serve as its OceanBound resin. Without collection, the plastic has the potential to be swept into waterways that lead to oceans.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a letter of no objection for OceanBound, clearing the way for its use with food-contact packaging.

    Up until now, the company has been supplying the resin for items such as electronics packaging, sunglasses and other nonfood items, said Mark Shafer, senior vice president and general manager at Envision Plastics.

    Nurture Hospitality Group, which makes hotel bathroom amenity containers, also indicated late last year a move to OceanBound resin and use of the nOcean — short for "no ocean" — symbol to identify those bottles and tubs.

    "We fully expect this to dramatically increase the demand because our customers have been asking us to get the NOL [non-objection letter] in place," Schafer said.

    The letter gives brand owners an extra level of comfort in using the resin. And while the resin already has been available for use in other applications, such as personal care items, the company expects the new status will give companies the extra piece of mind needed for wider use.

    The federal government, in its government way, does not approve any recycled plastic for food contact. The agency only says it will not object and issues a letter. But that move opens the door for its use without objection.

    Plastics in the environment is a red-hot issue that's gained the attention of the industry, environmentalists and the general public.

    Ocean plastics are a particularly scorching situation as opponents to single-use plastics point to the problem as a reason to ban those products.

    Many in the plastics industry, over recent years, have evolved their response to acknowledge that plastics must be managed better once they are used. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, for example, is a multicompany, multinational effort funded by corporate dollars to create programs and systems to attack the issue.

    "As one of the larger processors of recycled HDPE in North America, we have assisted in lots of efforts as different organizations have worked really hard, and we've been fully supportive of that, as they worked to step up to collect this material and get it processed back into something useful," Shafer said.

    CCC and Envision, which has recycling locations in both Reidsville, N.C., and Chino, Calif., have established supply chain programs to collect littered plastics, load them into shipping containers and send them off to one of the company's two processing sites.

    "We did this in response to a lot of customers saying, 'We want more supply, we want access.' Ocean plastics are a problem in our society. So what I'd like to say, a bit provocatively, is we've eliminated that barrier. We've worked hard to make that available. And now we'd like to partner with organizations to bring it to market to serve the needs of their end users," said Brian Hankin, senior vice president of innovation, strategy and business development at CCC.

    Plastic is collected by residents in Haiti as well as one other location that CCC declined to identify. The source of recycled plastic for OceanBound is no better or worse when it comes to contamination than domestically collected HDPE. Depending on market conditions, the material can have less contamination, Schafer said.

    The key to the program is that CCC and Envision have worked on supply chain logistics to help local people manage the plastic they handle. That work includes "helping the organizations in these areas to learn how to identify and how to collect the plastic, how to incentivize the local folks who collect the plastics, how to safely load the container, and just as importantly, how to safely load a container so that it can be safely unloaded as well," Shafer said.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    2
    Biden sets US goal to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials
    3
    Official says Norfolk Southern fire likely started in rail car containing resin
    4
    Redline's ‘outrageous cultural behaviors' retain top employees
    5
    Commodity prices rise; engineering resins drop
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified