Consumers care about recycling. In a survey conducted for Packaging Digest’s 2015 Sustainable Packaging Study, 57% of participants cite a product’s recyclability to be top of mind when it comes to the environment and sustainability, a product featuring recycled content and reduced packaging coming up for second and third place. The majority of consumers see recyclability as the most important factor in choosing sustainable products, and it is consumers that ultimately drive company behavior.
However, the recyclability of a waste output depends on the degree of access the average consumer has to its solution; the solution to which the average consumer has the most access is their local recycling facility. Only if it can profit from the processing and selling of the materials will a local recycling facility collect a waste stream, which occurs if the collection and processing of said items costs less than what they can be sold for. Thus, most products and packaging are considered non-recyclable in the current municipal infrastructure due to economics.
Companies seek to address consumer concerns and market trends by working to make their products municipally recyclable, and one of the methods companies use to do so is to create or join an industry coalition. An industry coalition is a pact among firms in a market for a common interest. In this method, companies form an alliance to work with recyclers to accept their materials. Like a sort of lobbyist group, an industry coalition aims to influence decisions about the processes that affect their special interest, which in this case the municipal recyclability of the companies’ products and packaging.
Industry coalitions working with municipal recycling can work, but only in two circumstances. The first is when the material is inherently valuable, but falls outside the waste management infrastructure. In most cases, municipal recycling facilities (MRFs) already recycle these waste streams, and the collecting and processing the material is less than the value of the recovered material, making it profitable for MRFs to recycle the product.
Take the Carton Council of North America. In 2009, milk, soup, and juice cartons made from paper, plastic, and sometimes aluminum were only municipally recyclable for 18% of Americans due to the mixed nature of the carton materials. To divert cartons from landfills by way of making them municipally recyclable, members Elopack, Evergreen, SIG Combibloc and Tetrapak came together in 2009 to form the Carton Council, enlisting the help of recycling and logistics experts, building processing infrastructure, developing end of life markets, and promoting consumer awareness through partnerships with schools. By 2015, 57% of American households could recycle cartons, either through single stream recycling or grouped with plastics, metals, and glass.
To read the full story, visit http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/industry-recycling-coalitions-when-they-do-work-and-when-they-dont.html.