Abstract/Summary
The circular economy seeks to reclaim manufactured products, turning them back into raw materials to produce new, similar products. This concept of “circularity” promotes sustainable manufacturing of rigid packaging items such as glass, metal, corrugated cardboard, boxboard, and plastic, offering both economic and environmental benefits. Of the two modalities of recycling—mechanical and chemical—mechanical recycling is well established with clearly defined applications, infrastructure, and known recovery rates. Circularity in packaging products is made possible by the availability of three components in a supply chain: waste packaging collection for businesses and consumers, local and regional waste packaging processing facilities, and packaging manufacturers capable of and willing to incorporate reclaimed waste packaging into the manufacturing of new packaging products.
Introduction
The circular economy seeks to reclaim manufactured products, turning them back into raw materials to produce new, similar products. This concept of “circularity” promotes sustainable manufacturing of rigid packaging items such as glass, metal, corrugated cardboard, boxboard, and plastic, offering both economic and environmental benefits.
Of the two major methods of recycling, mechanical and chemical, it is mechanical recycling (the focus of this white paper) that is best established with clearly defined applications, known supply chains, infrastructure, and identifiable recovery rates.1 Chemical recycling is a process reserved for waste packaging materials for which mechanical recycling is impractical. Used primarily in plastics recycling, chemical recycling breaks down the sorted plastic packaging into its original molecular state. Some plastics may also be mechanically recycled for re-entry into the circular supply chain.
“Mechanical recycling” refers to the entire recycling process of sorting, washing, and grinding packaging materials in preparation for re-entry as raw material into the packaging manufacture process. The processes involved in mechanical recycling differ based on type of material used, primarily due to the specific remanufacturing requirements needed for each type.
For example, clear glass must be separated from colored glass, then cleaned and cleared of metals and other material, before being ground into cullet (processed waste glass used by bottle and jar manufacturers) before entering the raw materials flow at the glass factory furnace. Aluminum cans have their coatings removed, are shredded, and then enter the raw materials feed to a furnace. Steel cans require less preprocessing; they are directly recycled or extracted from waste streams using powerful magnets before entering the raw materials feed to the blast furnaces along with other ferrous material. Plastics must be sorted by type, washed and cleaned of labels and coatings, and types 1 and 2 can be ground into feed for recycling. Cardboard is separated into single wall boxboard and old corrugated cardboard is baled at collection sites and processed in a hydropulper where extraneous items like twine, strapping, and staples are removed.
The use of recycled, raw material offers a key advantage for most categories of rigid packaging, as it requires significantly less energy for conversion to recycled products. This creates an economic incentive for packaging materials manufacturers to use recycled material. However, the percentage of recycled raw materials that may be incorporated into new packaging varies, both due to the manufacturing process, strength and other characteristics required for the packaging product.
Packaging materials manufacturers prioritize quality and uniformity in reclaimed packaging materials, creating economic incentives for proper sorting and processing throughout the supply chain. When the cost of preparing waste materials for recycling is too high, it can deter recycling efforts, leading to increased landfill disposal rather than returning materials to the circular market. With rising costs for landfill and improved technology at materials sorting facilities, cost-benefit analysis may favor recycling.2
Waste packaging is collected, sorted and baled at Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) or commercial recycling facilities. These facilities organize incoming waste materials into recyclable categories. They can be operated by municipalities, independent companies, or integrated with manufacturing mills.
Optimizing waste packaging materials for reuse is a growing business. Publicly held companies operating independent MRFs, which handle wide varieties of waste streams, have invested $15.1 billion in capital expansion in the past two years, not including dedicated commercial recycling facilities integrated to specific packaging manufacturers in some packaging industries.3
MRFs have added capabilities, allowing them to deliver processed waste optimized for specific packaging material before returning it to the manufacturing materials stream. A 2023 survey of MRFs by the Glass Recycling Coalition found 41 percent (up from 36 percent) have added components such as air blowers, color scanners, and crushers unique to producing cullet.4 In the boxboard and corrugated packaging market, more than 100 MRFs dedicated to optimizing wood fiber paper waste streams for circular reuse are operated by members of the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA).5
Define Packaging Materials
This white paper covers mechanical recycling in the context of circularity for common rigid packaging and containers, examining the materials stream and noting, when applicable, areas of pre-consumer and post-consumer waste streams and the recycling recovery rate for each category of packaging. Packaging materials included here are glass bottles and jars, steel cans, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and other PET plastic packaging materials, paperboard, and corrugated boxes (old corrugated containers or OCC). Not covered are plastic films, metal foils, paper bags/mailers and paper wrappers.
Another key concept in packaging is three strata categorized as primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging.6 Primary packaging is any type of outer material that protects food, drink and consumer goods throughout transit. Secondary packaging surrounds primary packaging to ensure products stay in pristine condition. Tertiary packaging is a shrink-wrapped pallet or a box load of cartons (secondary) containing goods in primary packaging.
About Recycling Rates
Both the EPA and each packaging industry sector calculate recycling rates based on weight of materials. Typically, a calculation is made of the tonnage of packaging manufactured, factored against a corresponding set of figures when known: 1) tonnage of packaging material collected, tonnage reused as raw material for new packaging; 3) tonnage
lost in manufacturing; and 4) tonnage sent to landfill and/or end of life applications.7
Two other factors that potentially affect recycling rates, specifically, the percentage of packaging materials recovered for reuse as raw materials, are Extended Producer Responsibility and Beverage Container Deposit laws. Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, is a regulatory strategy that requires producers and other entities involved in the product chain to bear responsibility for the longer-term environmental impact of products they produce.8
Beverage container deposit laws, known as “bottle bills,” require a minimum refundable deposit on beverage containers, usually 5 cents, intended to ensure a high rate of recycling. U.S. states with bottle bills in effect show higher rates of bottle and can recycling than other states.9
Define Circularity
Circularity is a shortened term drawn from the concept of the circular economy. In its broadest sense, the circular economy has been described by researchers as a “regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimized by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops.” This can be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling.10
In the packaging industry, circularity refers to the reclamation of waste packaging products for reuse as raw materials for subsequent manufacture of similar or related new products. Sustainable manufacturing of rigid packaging products—glass, metal, corrugated cardboard, boxboard, and plastic—is furthered by incorporating a strategy for reclaiming used packaging material once it is emptied. Across packaging industry segments, reclaimed raw materials require less energy to convert to new packaging than comparable virgin materials. In all materials categories, reclaimed raw material has different functional properties than virgin materials, setting practical constraints on the recycling process, or in some cases, the number of times packaging products can be recycled before the materials reach the end of life.
In packaging, the ideas of circularity and a circular economy depend on the supply chains of the types of packaging materials involved. These supply chains are divided into pre-consumer and post-consumer waste streams. Sources of recyclable waste packaging materials can also be categorized by business-to-business and business-
to-consumer markets.
Packaging waste in the business-to-business market is generated by fewer entities and collected in larger volumes. Although this market is smaller compared to the business-to-consumer market, the waste material is cleaner and more valuable for firms that convert it into new packaging.
In the business-to-consumer market, packaging waste generated by end users yields hundreds of millions of discarded items. In urban and exurban settings, post-consumer packaging waste is collected by municipal departments and government regulated business contractors, or deposited directly by small businesses and residents at designated receiving sites: recycling centers, dumps, landfills, etc.
The movement of waste packaging generally follows these steps:
Waste collection
Transfer to a materials recycling facility where it is cleaned and sorted by material category
Transfer for additional pre-processing for glass and plastic packaging materials
Transfer to packaging materials producers’ mills for conversion to intermediate raw material for packaging
It’s worth noting that most corrugated packaging is recycled from warehouses and retailers who gather it in mill-ready bales with onsite baler and compactor equipment placement, a more efficient recycling chain that skips steps 2 and 3.
7 Elements of Standardization, EPA Archives
8 What Is Extended Producer Responsibility, AF&PA, December 20, 2024
9 The Bottle Bill Price Boost, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, March 14, 2024
10 The Circular Economy: A New Sustainability Paradigm? Journal of Cleaner Production, February 2017
Limits on Material Use in Circular Mechanical Recycling
In the packaging material categories examined here—glass, metal, corrugated cardboard, boxboard, and plastic—the recycling process reaches a limit when the material becomes fatigued or downcycled into non-reclaimable products.
Each material has different limitations on the percentage of recycled content that can be used. For glass, and steel and aluminum cans, the cycle is technically infinite, as the materials do not fatigue during the recycling process. Plastic bottles can be mechanically processed into feedstocks for recycled plastic containers, or they are downcycled into non-recoverable products like garden edging. Colored glass cannot be recycled circularly but can be downcycled into end-of-life products such as abrasives, fiberglass, and construction material. OCC and boxboard are not infinitely recyclable. Eventually, paper fibers weaken and may be converted to end-of-life use as bathroom tissue or fuel for mills.11 While the best option is recycling, OCC is also compostable, and if ends up in landfill, won’t cause long-term harm.
Mechanical Recycling in Rigid Packaging Categories
Here is a summary of how mechanical recycling works in the circular supply chain for
each of the rigid packaging categories.
Aluminum Cans
Aluminum containers12 are highly valued for recycling because reclaimed aluminum uses only 5 percent of the energy needed to make aluminum from virgin bauxite ore. Aluminum can be reused indefinitely without compromising its structure or functionality, and two-thirds of the aluminum ever manufactured is still in use. In 2023, 43 percent of post-consumer aluminum cans were recycled.13
Prior to melting in a furnace, used aluminum beverage containers are shredded to remove trapped water and other contaminants. The uniform size of the shreds helps material flow in downstream processing. The shreds are passed under magnetic separators to remove ferrous contamination. In some facilities, air knives are also used to prevent the inclusion of heavy contamination such as lead, stainless steel, or zinc.
After shredding, the aluminum enters a de-coating unit, which heats the material and vaporizes coatings. It is then sent to the melting furnace where alloying additives and some non-reclaimed aluminum is added to meet final specifications for the ingot.
Specific to circularity, aluminum ingot is produced from pre-consumer and post-consumer scrap cans recovered from both industrial and consumer waste streams. The used cans are collected in municipal curbside programs, drop-off programs, or deposit programs. A life cycle analysis of aluminum beverage containers by the Aluminum Association14 found that used cans collected by drop-off and deposit programs are much cleaner than those recovered from single-stream curbside recycling programs.
Aluminum cans on average contain 73 percent recycled content (including pre-consumer materials) and 27 percent virgin or primary aluminum. If an aluminum beverage can were created from recycled material, it would use 80 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than if it were made only with primary (unrecycled) material.15
Manufacturing an aluminum beverage can begins with remelting and casting aluminum scrap and aluminum ingots. Treated aluminum post-consumer and pre-consumer scrap, together with primary and recycled aluminum ingots, are mixed and melted in furnaces and cast into ingots for rolling.
The rolling process converts aluminum ingots into can body stock and lid stock coil, which are subsequently converted into can bodies and lids at the can manufacturing plant. In hot mill rolling, aluminum ingots weighing 15 to 30 metric tons are preheated to about 1,000°F. They are then passed through a hot reversing mill where they go back and forth between rollers to become thinner and longer. Next, the slabs are fed through a continuous hot mill to further reduce their thickness and roll them into coils, which are transferred to the cold mill.
The coils are then passed through multiple sets of continuous rollers to reduce the gauge to approximately 0.305 centimeters, and coils are cut to fit the width and cut to the length required by can manufacturers. Sheet rolling differs slightly based on the final use of the can sheet and whether the aluminum will be used for the body of the can or the lid.
Aluminum cans flow successfully through an existing domestic circular economy. There are nearly 90,000 aluminum beverage cans recycled every minute in the US with 93 percent of those recycled cans going from the recycling bin back to store shelves in as little as 60 days.16
Steel
Each year, American steel making furnaces consume nearly 70 million tons of domestic steel scrap to produce new steel. A need for a continuous feedstock of steel scrap directly drives the recycling of many common steel products, including cans, cars, appliances, and construction materials. Steel can be recycled continuously—without loss of quality or strength.17
The steel industry identifies three categories of scrap that are recycled: home scrap, new scrap, and old scrap. The first two are waste recaptured during steel production or can manufacturing. Old scrap, defined as steel containers that have been used as a consumer product, is the category pertinent to mechanical recycling and circularity in packaging manufacturing.18
Steel cans are collected by scrappers, dropped off at designated locations, or taken to buy-back centers. They are then sorted and sent to mills or foundries. This steel scrap is then melted in 3,000-degree furnaces and purified to remove any contaminants. Steel cans also can be separated from other waste at materials recycling facilities using industrial sized magnets. Due to the intense heat of the furnaces, steel cans need less intermediate processing at MRFs compared to aluminum smelting. The melted steel is solidified into sheets and prepped for shipping to can manufacturers and other factories for use as raw material.19
When one ton of steel is recycled, 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone are conserved.20
| Data Year: 2019 | Total Steel Available for Recovery (Short tons) | Total Scrap Recovered (Short tons) | Recycling Rate (Percent) | |
| EOL Scrap (Old): | Containers | 1,965,228 | 1,138,958 | 58% |
| New Scrap: | Containers | 250,809 | 245,793 | 98% |
| Total: (Old+New Scrap) | Containers | 2,216,037 | 1,384,751 | 62% |
Glass bottles and jars
Glass containers include beverage bottles and food jars. In 2018, 12.3 million tons of glass products were generated in the U.S.21
In its “Circular Future for Glass,” the Glass Packaging Institute notes that in 2018, 39 percent of manufactured glass containers in the US were recovered from waste streams. Based on figures from the US EPA and glass packaging industry, 31 percent of glass containers are recycled overall. The 8 percent difference between recovered and recycled glass represents glass lost to landfills as it moves through sorting, processing, and back to manufacturing.22
Glass bottle recycling rates differ significantly by state. Ten states have bottle bill laws that require consumers to pay refundable 5 cent deposits on bottles (10 cents in Michigan): California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.
Oregon has the highest rate of glass container recycling at 73 percent; Illinois is among the lowest at 8 percent. Overall, bottle bill states have a 63 percent glass recycling rate; compared to 24 percent in states without bottle bills.23
The process used for glass containers to enter the circular economy bears similarities to all packaging materials. Recovered glass is taken to a material recovery facility and is then separated by color, cleaned, and crushed into cullet. Clear glass containers are generally more valuable and easier to recycle than colored glass, which can be more difficult to process and may have lower demand in the market for recycled materials. The cullet is shipped to a glass manufacturer who melts it (at temperatures up to 2,700°F) and mixes it with virgin silica material to make new containers.
Processing capacity for recycled glass material has historically been limited by a shortage of MRF processing centers that can separate glass by color and convert it to cullet, and proximity problems: MRF processing centers are often long distances from glass manufacturers.24
Glass made from recycled materials includes four components: limestone, sand, soda ash, and cullet (crushed, reclaimed waste glass). These are melted together in furnaces to create liquid glass, which is then shaped into containers, solidifying as it cools. Cullet melts at a lower temperature than the virgin silica it replaces, so every 10 percent increase of cullet decreases energy use by 3 percent and CO2 emissions by 5 percent.25
21 Facts and Figures About Materials Waste Recycling, Glass: Material-Specific Data, EPA 2018
22 A Circular Future for Glass, Glass Packaging Institute-Boston Consulting Group, July 2024
23 Unlocking Recycling Potential, Resource Recycling, Feb 27, 2024
24 A Circular Future for Glass, Glass Packaging Institute - Boston Consulting Group, July 2024
Glass manufacturers regularly use recycled glass in the production of new containers with percentages of recycled material ranging from 26-70%, depending on the manufacturer.26 Glass from such items as windows, mirrors or ceramics cannot be recycled due to differences in the manufacturing process compared to containers.
Of the glass that is recyclable, it can be recycled for an infinite amount of time, making it compatible with a circular economy. About 80 percent of recycled glass containers are made into new glass, in as little as 30 days.
Every ton of glass recycled saves 1.16 tons of raw materials, and every 10 percent of recycled glass used in the manufacturing process reduces energy consumption by about 3 percent and carbon emissions by 5 percent.27
It is feasible to manufacture glass containers from 100 percent recycled material. Manufacturer O-I holds a patent on a bottle made from 100 percent cullet.28 Glass manufacturers welcome recycled cullet.
Deposit Container Processing Facilities
Returnable container systems ready for bottle deposit are routed back to the same regional deposit container processing facility where polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and aluminum cans with deposits are processed. These facilities, which handle the required deposit tracing tasks that are part of a state’s bottle deposit system, process the glass. It then goes directly to a glass container manufacturer, fiberglass manufacturer, or a glass-specialized beneficiation plant that makes the furnace-ready glass cullet used by those same manufacturers.29
A glass processor with glass beneficiation services is the key link for any region to produce quality, clean cullet for manufacturing. These facilities use advanced crushing, pneumatic and optical sorting (to isolate the desired clear glass from colored glass), and cleaning equipment to prepare end market-ready glass feedstocks. Undesirable glass moves to end of life uses such as building materials like fiberglass, concrete, tile and drainage aggregate, and can be used as an industrial abrasive, sandblasting media, or reflective paint filler.30
A 2023 Glass Institute survey found that respondent satisfaction (62 percent) was the top reason municipal recycling authorities keep glass in recycling programs. Glass industry respondents cited “achieving environmental benefits or circular economy” (Figure 7) as their top reason for recycling glass.
Increasing numbers of MRFs are adding specialized glass recycling capabilities. In the same survey, 41 percent of survey respondents reported having specialized glass cleaning equipment, up from 36 percent in 2020. This equipment includes air separators (to remove non-glass residue), pulverizers, magnetic separators, vacuums, and vibrating table screens.31
Paperboard and Corrugated Cardboard
Tree fibers are transformed into many products, from copier paper to books and cardboard boxes. The spectrum of paper-based products—newspaper, white paper, mixed paper, boxboard, corrugated cardboard and directories—are readily recycled and fed into the circular economy within the paper-based packaging industry. The average corrugated box is 52 percent recycled content.32
Old corrugated containers, or OCC, represent a significant percentage of the commercial solid waste stream, about 13.8 percent of material solid waste generated. Approximately 90 percent of OCC comes from the commercial sector, typically from retailers and distributors that receive boxed goods for resale to end consumers.33
Americans recycle millions of tons of OCC each year, more than any other kind of paper. In the consumer-generated packaging waste market, around three-quarters of all OCC in the U.S. are recovered from waste streams and recycled. An even higher percentage is reclaimed from manufacturers and packaged product sellers. Approximately 35.2 million tons of OCC was recycled in the U.S. in 2022. This represents an increase of roughly 11.7 million tons in comparison to 2001 levels. In 2024, the recycling rate of cardboard in the US stood at 69-74 percent.34
Contributing to a high rate of recycling for corrugated containers is availability of recycling programs.35 Another reason OCC rates have risen is the active engagement of corrugated container manufacturers with commercial customers, with high rates of recycling of corrugated purchased by paper and packaging firms with an integrated supply chain of commercial recycling facilities, pulping mills, and box manufacturing plants. There are 100 recycling facilities operated by paper-based packaging manufacturers nation-wide.
Most OCC is used to make new paper products. Nearly half of recycled paper, about 20.8 million tons, went into making containerboard in 2024. That’s the material used to make cardboard boxes.
About 27% of recycled paper was exported. Paper mills around the world rely on our recycled paper exports to manufacture new products.
The rest was used in the U.S. to make packaging for cereal or medicine, tissue products like toilet paper and paper towels, as well as printing papers.36
OCC is collected in many instances as part of a mixed recyclables stream in residential recycling. To optimize recyclability mills seek clean containers free of impurities such as food, metal foil, wax, and other contaminants.
The collected OCC is sorted, compacted, and baled for space-efficient storage and handling at the end-use location recycling facility. At the paper mill, the bales are opened and the OCC is mixed with water in a repulper (a huge tub and blender) to form a fiber slurry. This can also be used for paperboard (used for cereal boxes, etc.) and newsprint.
Many extraneous contaminants are readily removed. Twine, strapping, and any other binding materials are removed from the hydropulper by a “ragger.” Metal straps and staples can be screened out or removed by a magnet. Film-backed pressure-sensitive tape stays intact—the adhesive and the backing are both removed together.
An exception are materials with more difficult-to-remove moisture-proof wax coatings, as this type of corrugated material will be rejected by MRFs because the mills cannot recycle them. However, recent developments in fully recyclable wax substitutes for moisture-proof coatings such as International Paper’s ClimaGuard® medium may reduce this concern for MRFs.37
The now highly diluted fiber solution is poured onto a moving screen, allowing water to drain and forming a fiber mat. The mat is pressed between rollers to remove more water and then dried by alternately contacting heated drying cylinders to eliminate remaining moisture. At the end of the paper machine, paper is rolled up on a large reel spool weighing up to 60 tons. This reel is then slit and rewound into individual rolls. The newly produced paper rolls are shipped to box manufacturers to be converted into corrugated boxes.38
Unlike glass or steel, paper fibers weaken each time they are recycled. For this reason, not all recycled paper goes directly to manufacturers to make more paper. Fiber that can no longer be used in paper making can be downcycled to create insulation, animal bedding or compost.39
Studies have indicated that the amount of corrugated generated by businesses varies with business type, size, activity, etc. and can represent 15 percent of the material solid waste generated in an office setting and as much as 40 percent or more at retailers. OCC generation rates have been estimated as follows:
Business type and estimates of corrugated generated per location.40
Small convenience stores: 700-1000 lbs./month
Grocery stores/supermarkets: 8-30 + tons/month
Department stores: 8-20 + tons/month
Hospitals: 5 tons/month
36 Corrugated Is Recyclable, Fibre Box Association
37 The Circular Lifecycle of Climabin®, International Paper
38 Corrugated Recycling Process, Fibre Box Association
39 If All Paper Cannot Be Made From 100% Recycled Fiber, What Should We Use? TRELLIS, July 2024
40 Corrugated Cardboard Recycling, Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection
SOURCE: AF&FP
Rigid Plastic Packaging
Mechanical recycling of plastic
Plastic is made from fossil fuel (approximately 30 percent oil and 70 percent natural gas). There are many different types of plastic on the market. In the U.S., while plastic containers may be stamped with the recyclable symbol, this may not be a reliable indicator of the recyclability of the plastic.41
Mechanical recycling of plastic is the recovery and processing of plastic waste and transforming it into secondary raw materials or recyclate for new applications. There are many steps of mechanical recycling including sorting, grinding, washing, re-granulation, and compounding before the material is ready to be reused.
Each step of the process requires different chemistries and technologies to produce safe and high-quality post-consumer recyclate (PCR). Additionally, since this process does not change the chemical structure of the material or require highly specialized equipment, it is easily scaled and implemented globally. Mechanical recycling is an essential component of the circular economy for plastics.42
Recycling plastics is more complicated because there are several different kinds of plastics.
Each type requires different processing methods due to additives such as dyes and fillers that must be removed before it can be reused. To help with initial curbside sorting, the Society of the Plastics Industry created the resin identification code, a set of numbers and symbols stamped on plastic consumer goods indicating the type of plastic and its potential for recycling.43
#1 PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate), used in water bottles, is the most recycled plastic. Recycled PET is used to make bottles for cleaning products or other non-food, sailboat hulls, industrial paints, and fiber products (t-shirts, jackets and carpets).44
SOURCE: NAPCOR
Virgin, amorphous PET (APET) accounts for 71 percent of total sheet and resin purchases in the packaging market, followed by post-consumer recycled PET (RPET) at 26 percent. PET bottle collection rates in North America have exceeded 30 percent consistently since NAPCOR began tracking these metrics in 2019.45
#2 High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is the most common household plastic, used in rigid plastic containers such as milk and detergent bottles.46 Recycled HDPE can be transformed into end-of-life, non-recoverable materials such as plastic lumber, base cups for soft drink bottles, flowerpots, plastic toys, traffic barrier cones, bottle carriers and trash cans – uses that exit the circular economy. However, recycled HDPE can be made into milk bottles and grocery bags, supporting circular reuse.
#3 PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is the plastic used in flooring, plumbing, shower curtains, house siding and garden hoses. Though PVC is harder to recycle, it can be processed to make drainage piping, fencing, handrails and house siding.
#4 LDPE (low-density polyethylene) is used to make cellophane wrap, disposable diaper liners, plastic bags, and squeeze bottles. The nature of products made from LDPE make it very difficult to recycle.
#5 PP (polypropylene) is a component in tubes, automotive battery casings, and long underwear. Though not often recycled, there is the potential to create auto parts, batteries, bird feeders, furniture, pails, water meter boxes, bag dispensers, golf equipment, carpets, recycling containers, and industrial fibers.
#6 PS (polystyrene or polystyrene foam), used for everything from packing peanuts to takeout containers to rigid foam insulation—is seldom recycled due to its low density. The energy required to compact it into a usable material is cost-prohibitive, and it’s more economical to haul it to the landfill, where it accounts for about 30 percent of the material there. It is found in coffee cups, plastic cutlery, take-out food packaging, and egg cartons. The small amount of polystyrene that can be recycled may be recycled into more polystyrene products as well as insulation, plastic lumber, license plate frames, cafeteria trays, and hard plastic pens.
Conclusion
Mechanical recycling is a key component of the circular economy for packaging. The process of circularity in packaging materials is a product of multiple factors:
Availability of recycling services for businesses and consumers.
Location of Materials Recovery Facilities in proximity to packaging materials mills.
Rates of packaging materials recycling and reentry into circularity varies by specific material manufacturing processes.
Value of recovered packaging material and expense of preparation for recycling influences the decision on whether to recycle, dispose in landfills or incinerate.
The packaging material recycling rate is highest for old corrugated containers, followed (in descending order) by aluminum cans, steel cans, glass containers, and plastic bottles.
Economic factors at each step of the circular economy supply chain for packaging have
a direct impact on recovery and recycling rates.
