Recycler St. Joseph Plastics gets FDA approval for post-consumer polypropylene

Missouri-based recycler St. Joseph Plastics is now offering post-consumer polypropylene pellets for some food-contact applications.

The company on March 31 received a letter of nonobjection from the Food and Drug Administration.

"We know that this is asked for by a lot of customers and that's why we did it. We want to stand out," said Ron Moore, sales and purchasing manager at St. Joseph Plastics.

The St. Joseph, Mo.-based company is recycling PP containers from curbside programs, which it sources from materials recovery facilities all over the United States.

St. Joseph has three facilities — a washing plant, a grinding plant and a compounding plant. The washing facility uses a multistep mechanical process, using water and friction, to clean the material. The yield loss on bales can be up to 40 percent by weight.

The company has approval for its customers to use the post-consumer pellets in certain food-contact applications. Examples include dry foods with no surface fat or oil, such as raw fruits, vegetables and dry pasta.

Moore said the company is working toward getting approval for additional applications.

St. Joseph started working towards getting an FDA letter in the middle of 2021. Moore said the approval took longer than expected because of COVID.

Intertek Group plc, a company that tests, inspects and certifies products, assisted in the effort.

"We contacted them, and they walked us through the processes of what needs to be done," Moore said. "They've been our biggest help. It's basically a series of submitting samples and then a description of the process that you have and what your machines do, down to diagrams and descriptions of temperatures."

While PP recycling is getting a lot of attention as companies work to boost its post-consumer recycling rate, St. Joseph did not receive any outside funding to get the FDA approval. Moore said company officials hope it opens some doors to allow for new growth, as not many other recyclers offer post-consumer PP pellets.

St. Joseph reported total North American recycling volume of 44 million pounds in 2022, according to Plastics News data. All of that material is compounded and 15 percent is post consumer.

The company also recycles high and low density polyethylene.