Page 46 - Plastics News October 2019

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

RB and TerraCycle introduce MIT alumna addresses the
plastic packaging recycle world’s mounting plastic waste

programme problem

lobal health and hygiene company RB, maker riyanka Bakaya who joined MIT’s Sloan School of
Gof popular consumer brands including Mucinex PManagement in 2009 has been working on plastic to
and Enfamil, announced today their partnership IXHO FRQYHUVLRQ ZLWK WKH ÀUP 5HQHZORJ\ WKDW SURÀWDEO\
with international turn even nonrecyclable plastic into high-value fuels
recycling leader like diesel, as well as the precursors to new plastics.
TerraCycle to offer Since its inception, Bakaya has guided Renewlogy
consumers a simple through multiple business and product transformations
and completely free to maximize its impact. During the company’s evolution
way to recycle their from a garage-based startup to a global driver of
consumer goods sustainability, it has licensed its technology to waste
packaging. The RB management companies in the U.S. and Canada,
Health & Nutrition created community-driven supply chains for processing
Recycling Program QRQUHF\FOHG SODVWLF DQG VWDUWHG D QRQSURÀW 5HQHZ
will accept packaging waste from all brands of vitamins 2FHDQV WR UHGXFH WKH ÁRZ RI SODVWLF LQWR WKH ZRUOG·V
oceans. One of Renewlogy’s key innovations is using a
and supplements, upper respiratory, sexual health & continuous system on plastics, which saves energy by
well-being, as well as infant formula & child nutrition, eliminating the need to reheat the system to the high
personal care and foot care.The Healthy You, Healthy temperatures necessary for conversion. Today, plastics
Planet™ partnership with TerraCycle to recycle all health HQWHULQJ 5HQHZORJ\·V V\VWHP DUH ÀUVW VKUHGGHG WKHQ
and nutrition packaging is the next step in achieving put through a chemical reformer, where a catalyst
RB’s global commitments to support a more sustainable degrades their long carbon chains. Roughly 15 to 20
future, which also includes reducing product packaging percent of those chains are converted into hydrocarbon
and eliminating waste through innovation. “At RB, we gas that Renewlogy recycles to heat the system. Five
know how important protecting the future of our planet percent turns into char, and the remaining 75 percent is
is to our consumers so we’ve partnered with TerraCycle converted into high-value fuels. Bakaya says the system
to make it simple for anyone to take an active interest in can create about 60 barrels of fuel for every 10 tons
the environment and recycle their packaging waste,” said of plastic it processes, and it has a 75 percent lower
Nitish Kapoor, Executive Vice President, RB North America
Health Brands. “People buy millions of RB health products
from brands like Enfamil and Mucinex every week, so
offering free, national recyclability for the packaging is
simply the right thing to do. This programme is part of
RB’s ongoing commitment to creating a circular economy,
ZKLFK DOVR LQFOXGHV PDNLQJ RI RXU SDFNDJLQJ
UHF\FODEOH RU UHXVDEOH ZKLOH XVLQJ DW OHDVW UHF\FOHG
plastic content in our packaging by 2025.” Through the RB
Health & Nutrition Recycling Programme, packaging waste
from the following categories will be recycled: Personal
care and foot care packaging: tubes, bottles, caps, lids,
and other plastic packaging. From vitamin bottles and caps carbon footprint when compared to traditional methods
to infant formula tubs, TerraCycle will clean and melt the for extracting and distilling diesel fuel. The projects
have positioned Renewlogy to continue scaling and have
collected product packaging into hard plastic that can be earned Bakaya entrepreneurial honors from the likes
remolded to make new recycled products.
RI )RUEHV )RUWXQH DQG WKH :RUOG (FRQRPLF )RUXP

46
Plastics News October 2019 48