Page 33 - Plastics News November 2022

FEATURE

PureCycle Targets Plastic Election Signs for Recycling

a patented, solvent-driven recycling
technology, developed by Procter &
Gamble, that converts PP waste into
ultrapure PP resin. The purification
process removes color, odor, and
other impurities from PP waste, pro-
ducing a recycled plastic that can be
manufactured into new products and
eventually be recycled again.
In Seminole County, the PureCycle
sign-recycling program “is a first-of-
its-kind recycling effort. Volusia and
Orange counties previously sent the
signs to an alternative recycling part-
ner. This election cycle, they part-
nered with PureCycle after learning
about our polypropylene recycling
technology,” Bruey said.
“The LWV initially reached out to
ureCycle Technologies has teamed signs to a nearby site. PureCycle after they heard about our
Pup with the League of Women “With our headquarters in Orlando, ability to turn polypropylene plas-
Voters (LWV) in Florida to recycle we wanted to help the community tic into a sustainable resin that can
polypropylene (PP) election signs af- where we live and work,” Christian be continuously repurposed and re-
ter the midterm election on Nov. 8, Bruey, PureCycle’s PureZero pro- used,” he added.
2022. gram lead, told PlasticsToday. “The The election-sign recycling project is
Starting the day after the election, Central Florida chapters of the League part of PureCycle’s PureZero pro-
PureCycle and the LWV will start col- of Women Voters have done this with gram, through which PureCycle col-
lecting the signs. By the end of the previous elections, and it was an im- lects PP from sports venues for pro-
month, they expect to recycle more portant and impactful project for us cessing, purification, and re-use in
than 15,000 signs, diverting thousands to support and improve, considering manufacturing. We previously report-
of pounds of plastic waste from the an estimated 10,000 pounds of plastic ed on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ partici-
state’s landfills, waterways, and green signs could have been landfilled each pation in PureZero.
spaces. election, in these counties alone.” “It is our hope that this initiative
Volunteers from LWV chapters in The collected signs will be shipped grows beyond Central Florida for fu-
Florida’s Volusia, Seminole, and Or- to a recycling center for baling ture elections,” Bruey said. “There
ange counties will collect signs from and then to PureCycle’s Ironton, are hundreds of thousands of these
Democratic and Republican Party OH, facility for processing and pu- signs in every state across our country
headquarters and from citizen drop- rification. that can now be recycled using Pure-
off sites. Candidates and their sup- PureCycle holds a global license for Cycle’s technology.”
porters are urged to bring their

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November 2022 PLASTICS NEWS 33