Plastics executive Jeremy DeBenedictis has taken a personal approach to plastics recycling.
On June 7, DeBenedictis posted a photo on LinkedIn of the plastic packaging his family had used over a couple of months. The photo showed chip bags, cheese wrapping, takeout containers, granola wrappers, cookie trays, salad bags, yogurt cups, fruit cups, bread bags, grape bags and — as DeBenedictis described — "of course, the wholesale store rotisserie chicken container!"
DeBenedctis is president of Alterra Energy LLC, a chemical recycling firm based in Akron, Ohio. The firm's plant in Akron can process about 45 million pounds of mixed waste plastic per year.
Alterra heats that material in a liquefaction process and converts it into around 100,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil. The firm sources mixed plastics — excluding PET and PVC — from materials recovery facilities in the region.
"All of this [packaging] will be shredded and added to the pile behind me that contains other people's plastic deemed too hard for traditional recycling," he added. DeBenedictis also said that Alterra's advanced recycling technology "will renew all of it back into the original building blocks to make new plastic."
"Society depends on plastic packaging to keep our food and beverages fresh while being lightweight yet durable. Shipping more product with less packaging vs. substitute materials leads to a better carbon footprint."
He urged the LinkedIn audience to "join Alterra in disrupting the traditional thinking that hard-to-recycle plastics should be discarded and helping people see that plastics are valuable and designed to become new again. Let's make recycling part of our daily routine!"
In February, Alterra licensed its technology to Freepoint Eco-Systems Holdings LLC. That firm now plans to build a recycling facility for waste plastics on the U.S. Coast with annual capacity of almost 425 million pounds. Alterra is seeking additional licensees for its technology.