Looking to recycle a high volume of dry pet food bags
- Filed in:
- Bags & pouches,
- Recycling,
- Food
Hello,
I am working with a team of MBA students to develop a system for capturing and recycling dry pet food bags. We are working in partnership with Nestle Purina and PetSmart to find vendors who can recycle either one or both of the bag types: 1) #5 PP bags and 2)Multi-wall paper bags with a thin plastic liner.
Does anyone have suggestions for facilities that can recycle a large amount of these material types? We are looking to launch a regional pilot program and then to scale the program up to other communities in the U.S.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
David
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Recycling options for pet food bags
Paul
David,
What is a #5 PP bag? I am familiar with the packaging that Nestle Purina uses and am wondering if you are referring to the large woven polypropylene bags.
With either option, you are likely facing developing a closed loop recycling system, similar to the ones that are used for grocery bags and now, for yogurt containers.
http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/01/gimme-5-recycling/
Municipal collection is not practical as the sorting technologies will not accomodate the bags. MERFs prefer paper, bottles and cans, not flexible packaging.
So, for the woven bags, maybe Gimme 5 is someone you should engage.
The multi-wall bags have mixed materials. They are about 85% paper and 15% film. The materials are recyclable but the problem is separating them for recycling. The film is laminated to the paper with a starch-based adhesive that would release in water. A paper mill with adequate screens and filters may be able to remove the film before it hits the machine. Some of the corrugated recyclers, such as Visy, may be able to shed some more light on the possibilities and the issues.
Great suggestions
dbennett
Paul,
My apologies for the delayed response. Yes, I am referring to the large woven polypropylene bags. I've taken a look at Preserve's Gimme 5 program and will be contacting them shortly to follow up. Thanks for the great suggestion. Also, I found a US based partner of Visy that we'll be contacting shortly as well.
Thanks again for the great suggestions,
David
I am looking to recycle a high volume amount of dry petfood bags
Thomas Oris
Excellent question! Assuming you are referring to the US market, this is rather challenging. Overall, this country does an inadequate job of claiming recyclable materials. In fact less than 25% of PET water bottles are reclaimed and reused, with most of this balance ending up in a landfill.
In your specific case, the multi wall bags that contain a poly liner are rather challenging and difficult to recycle even if we had the infrastructure in place. In regards to the PP bags, my concern would be the various blends of resin that are used to manufacture the bag and the ability to successfully reuse this material, again if it could be collected.
I would recommend talking to different types of organizations within the packaging community. This would include raw material suppliers, such as paper mills or resin suppliers, converters (companies that turn this into some form of packaging and/or MRF's (Material Recovery Facilities). Additionally, I would recommend contacting or at least reviewing the Walmart website that is dedicated to sustainability.
I wish you good fortune on this project, and if you could keep me updated on your progress and findings, I would greatly appreciate it!
Follow-up
dbennett
Thanks Thomas, I will update this forum as our work progresses. Thanks for your input on this.
- David
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