RETHINKING RECYCLING FROM PACKAGING LOOPS TO INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

Producing a clear PET bottle from recycled plastic is a triumph of engineering. But it also illustrates the limits of “circularity” as we’ve defined it to date.

To make a food-grade PET bottle from old bottles requires:

• High-quality feedstock – only clear, food-grade PET can be used, demanding highly segregated collection; resulting in low bale yields and a lot of waste.
• Multiple wash and melt cycles – contaminants must be removed through additional optical sorting, hot water washing, label removal, and melt-filtration.
• Energy-intensive processes – advanced methods like solid-state polycondensation or chemical recycling are needed to restore clarity and strength.

Even then, this works only because clear PET is the easiest plastic to recycle back into packaging. For Colored HDPE, LDPE, and PP there is no repeat food-grade pathway.

We do not dismiss the effort. On the contrary, it’s an impressive technical achievement. But recycling a plastic container into another plastic container is not the most effective way to solve our waste crisis.

A Missed Opportunity

Each year, Americans discard more than 80 million tons of packaging—plastic, paper, glass, and metal. Less than half is recycled. For plastic, the rate drops below 9%.

This is not only a crisis – it’s a missed opportunity.

Collection is Only Half of the Answer

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) shifts the burden upstream, creating incentives for better design and ensuring the funding to collect more material. States now have a policy framework that can scale.

But an EPR policy aimed overwhelmingly at stimulating collection cannot close the loop. Logic demands we also think downstream: Where will that plastic go? What are the viable, responsible end markets for colored HDPE, LDPE, and PP? Policy must play a central role in creating demand for all materials collected under EPR, and infrastructure provides an excellent opportunity to do so.

Infrastructure is the Real Circular

This was the message I carried to the Baerlocher Recycling Summit: we need a paradigm shift for recycled plastic.

Stop trying to compete with virgin plastic. Stop apologizing for what recycled plastic isn’t. Start leveraging its strengths against inferior materials.

Imagine a future where the very material driving a global waste crisis becomes the backbone of resilient infrastructure. Recycled plastics, often reinforced with glass fiber or other additives, can outperform wood, steel, and concrete in select applications.  A few examples that have scale:

• Rail Ties – 14 million wood ties installed annually in the accelerated decay zones of the US.. Each composite tie uses about 160 lbs of post-consumer plastic. Replacing wood ties in the high-rot zones with composites would INCREASE THE US PLASTIC RECYCLING RATE BY 50% 
• Pooling Pallets – 100+ million wooden pooling pallets in circulation. At 70 lbs each, this is a SEVEN BILLION POUND OPPORTUNITY for post-consumer resin.

And more… 

• Guardrail Posts 
• Highway Signs 
• Trailer Flooring 
• Retaining Walls
• Barrier Walls
• Marine Docks and Pilons
• Utility Poles

The list goes on…

If we shift the paradigm, the examples are endless. There are dozens of applications we can think of where recycled plastic can be a key ingredient in making a product superior.  We challenge you to a creative exercise. Grab a whiteboard and think about these qualities as you ideate:

• Stronger – must outperform the legacy product
• Strategic – makes sense economically over the full lifecycle
• Sustainable – better for the environment
• Scalable – enough demand for PCR to move the needle

The Call to Action

When economic interests align with public policy and social responsibility, the world changes. EPR will unlock supply. Infrastructure can unlock demand. Together, they can form a true circular economy that outcompetes legacy materials.  This is the next wave of plastic innovation.

It’s time to reimagine how to recycle the genius of plastics—not by forcing them back into packaging loops, but by putting them to work as the building blocks of infrastructure.

Infrastructure is the real circular. Are you ready to make the paradigm shift with us?