Dive Brief:
- Midland, MI-based Dow Chemical Company has become the 23rd member of The Recycling Partnership. As a funding sponsor of the national nonprofit of industry stakeholders, Dow aims to help bump the circular economy.
- In 2015 The Recycling Partnership, working to systematically expand curbside recycling in the US, leveraged $11 million for new infrastructure that reportedly reached 1.2 million households, according to Waste Management World. Members saw 165,000 carts delivered last year. This year, The Recycling Partnership plans to launch curbside cart and quality improvement programs in several cities to further increase distribution.
- According to the organization’s website, its focus is to see that counties, municipalities, tribes, and solid waste authorities with 4,000 or more households have cart-based collection.
Dive Insight:
Recycling infrastructure is strong in some regions but quite spotty and or nonexistent in others. Boosting infrastructure can be great for both communities and manufacturers—the ones who generate much of the waste and who could capitalize on it if it were returned to the stream; large companies lose $11.4 billion a year through wasted packaging alone.
The Recycling Partnership launched to help build a nationwide network to recover these materials for manufacturing feedstock. Its members who realize they can only do so much on their own believe they can have far-reaching impact together, a concept that others are working to prove out too.
"At Dow we are collaborating with other industry leaders to harness science, industries, and the incredibly powerful human element to transition to a sustainable planet and society," said Karen S. Carter, North America commercial vice president ot Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, as reported in Waste Management World.
