Page 59 - Plastics News August 2024
P. 59
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Centers in Las Vegas in late 2023 and has start- sumers generally do a good job of recycling at
ed construction on the second in Indianapolis. home, we need to improve access to recycling
away from home. Single-use packaging is often
The Indiana center will be co-located with the consumed on the go, which is why we’re inno-
first site for the Blue Polymers polyolefins joint vating ways to increase opportunities for out-of-
venture with plastics distributor Ravago, and a home collection.”
second Blue Polymers plant is planned for Buck-
eye, Arizona. Republic plans a total of four Poly- A company spokesperson told Resource Recy-
mer Center and Blue Polymers locations but has cling this statement refers to projects that are in
not yet announced locations for the remaining the works, and more details would be coming.
two co-located sites.
Organics and hard-to-recycle materials
The Las Vegas center supplies RPET flake to
The Coca-Cola Co., which aims to use at least Republic operates 22 organics facilities in North
50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030. America, including Wasteco in Toronto, Canada,
Other offtake partners include Circularix. which became part of Republic in 2023.
The company’s new Salt River Recycling Center Wasteco removes unsellable foods and liquids
near Phoenix, which opened in fall 2023 and re- from their packaging and then generates ener-
placed the previous facility that burned down in gy using anaerobic digestion. It also repurposes
2019, has helped increase the city of Mesa’s di- solid foods for animal feed and recycles the con-
version rate from 30% to 60%, Republic said in tainers. In 2023, Wasteco processed more than
the report. 13,000 tons of food and beverages and diverted
nearly 450 tons of food as animal feed.
That center services 1.4 million residents and
more than 2,000 businesses, with processing In Northern California, Republic’s anaerobic di-
capacity of 40 tons per hour, according to the gestion facility processed 28,000 tons of organ-
report. ic waste, creating biogas to generate enough
electricity to power the facility. The facility also
In 2023, the company spent $176 million on re- produced 20,000 gallons daily of digestate, the
cycling infrastructure and technology improve- organic material that remains after anaerobic
ment projects at 11 of its recycling facilities, help- digestion that is used at compost sites to add
ing to increase capacity and capabilities. moisture and nutrients.
Republic has deployed robotic arms in nearly In 2023, Republic partnered with the Indianapolis
20% of its recycling facilities for tasks such as Colts football team to offer two e-scrap recy-
sorting containers or picking out contaminants, cling events, resulting in the collection of nearly
and more robotics are expected to be installed 90 tons of e-scrap. Republic also recycled 2.2
in 2024, the report said. million pounds of aerosol cans during the year
and reached 2.1 million pounds of oil recycled, an
“While many customers and communities are increase of more than 9% over 2022.
doing their part to recycle, nationally, the recy-
cling rate is only 32%,” the company said, citing Source – RESOURCE RECYCLING
the latest U.S. EPA figures for 2018. “While con-
August 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 61
