NatureWorks LLC announced it plans to institute a large-volume “buy-back” program in North America for post-consumer PLA bottles in mixed plastic waste recycling streams. The program provides an additional landfill waste diversion option for corn-based NatureWorks PLA, a material that already offers the most waste diversion choices of any other plastic. Through the buy-back program, commercial Municipal Recycling Facilities (MRFs) in geographic areas would separate post-consumer PLA bottles into distinct PLA bales meeting a predefined specification, resulting in truckload quantities (40,000 lbs.). NatureWorks LLC will buy these bales at an agreed-upon price and route them to an appropriate end-of-life solution and/or post-consumer use based on geography of collection and prevailing market economics.
“NatureWorks LLC is committed to developing a responsible approach for introducing new plastic materials to the market and ensuring the successful introduction and proper disposal within the existing waste management and recycling infrastructures,” said Glenn Johnston, Manager – Global Regulatory Affairs at NatureWorks LLC.
Today NatureWorks PLA can be sorted from other plastics using standard Near-Infrared (NIR) equipment. In the future, MRFs will have the ability to sort PLA into a pure stream that can be mechanically or chemically recycled back to its monomer through hydrolysis. As a polymer, NatureWorks PLA is technically suited for single-use-bottle applications such as regional still water, fresh dairy, fresh juice, and edible oils. The current technology is not applicable for carbonated beverages. In the United States today, the most commonly recycled item is the soda bottle which makes up the majority of the collected recycled waste stream.