Revolution Plastics has been aggressively expanding its Little Rock operations over the past few years and now has a new opportunity to continue that growth through an initiative that will provide recycled plastic products for food containers. The Little Rock company, a plastics recycler and manufacturer, is a leader in the sustainability industry and the resin pellets it produces in the state are used in the agriculture, consumer-goods and food-services industries.
Revolution is teaming up with a Chicago company to deliver food and flexible packaging applications, which will use recycled plastic pellets produced at Revolution’s plant in Stuttgart. Together with Charter Next Generation, Revolution’s post-consumer resin (PCR) pellets will be used to manufacture stand-up pouches, pre-made bags and roll-stock applications for food-packaging uses.
The collaborative effort will produce protective film barriers used in bags for pet food or treats like M&Ms or microwaveable vegetable packages available in frozen-food sections across the United States. “This was a multiyear, targeted project to improve our process and it has really paid off in showing what can be done with recycled content,” Scott Coleman, senior vice president of strategy and growth at Revolution, said in a statement announcing the initiative. “We feel this is just the beginning of tremendous growth and application development for PCR in flexible films.”
Revolution’s pellets have been certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for direct contact with food products without limitations. That approval allows the pellets to be used in development of containers for every food product, including milk, beverages and baked goods, for example. FDA approval opened a broader market for Revolution’s pellet products and created new markets in the food-related industry.