Cleveland — North American recyclers and their customers are seeing plenty of room to grow as their industry heads into 2025.
Consumers in the region "are struggling to have confidence in the recycling system," said Treijon Johnson, sustainability director at flexible packaging maker Accredo Packaging Inc., in Sugar Land, Texas.
Johnson was part of an industry panel Nov. 14 at AMI Plastics World Expos in Cleveland.
"We need to collect more material and more types of material," added Zach Muscato, corporate sustainability manager with thermoformer Plastic Ingenuity in Cross Plains, Wis. "We're seeing imports [of recycled material], so we know there's demand."
Plastic Ingenuity ranked as North America's 13th largest thermoformer in the most recent Plastics News industry ranking, with 2023 sales of almost $260 million.
The panel also addressed recent disclosures that more than 100 companies won't be able to reach recycling goals set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Firms missing those goals include major global companies such as PepsiCo Inc., Walmart and Volkswagen. Previous goals by participating firms included project such as using all recyclable plastic packaging by 2025 and averaging 22 percent recycled plastics content by that same year.
"We're disappointed, but [those companies] can say what's realistic now," Johnson said. Muscato added that the disclosures "won't affect our progress or activities."
Looking ahead, manufacturers "must design for future [recycled] raw material, not just to sell and promote that material," said Scott Saunders, recycling general manager with KW Plastics in Troy, Ala. KW ranked as North America's largest plastics recycler in the most recent PN industry ranking. The firm processed 625 million pounds of plastics — primarily high density polyethlene — in 2023.
"We've seen strategic investments where assets have been purchased for recycled content," Muscato said.
Johnson said Accredo expects to see growth in the use of recycled materials in both 2025 and 2026. Accredo uses wind power to run its Sugar Land plant. The site received certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
On the design side, Muscato said thermoformers "are designing for recycling with materials, colorants and additives." These designs are using easier-to-recycle natural color instead of harder to recycle black where possible, he added.
Saunders pointed out that yogurt makers have moved from PVC cups to ones made from more frequently recycled polyethylene and polypropylene. Those firms "are using a lot more recycled material than they were 10 years ago," he added.
KW and other recyclers have more capacity than currently is being used, according to Saunders. He added that large amounts of recyclable plastic products still aren't being collected by municipalities.
All three panelists said they were optimistic about the future of the industry, with Muscato adding that packaging firms are using five times as much recycled plastics as they were five years ago.