Republic Services has been honoured with the National Waste & Recycling Association's (NWRA) 2023 Sustainability Game Changer award for its Polymer Center, celebrating the facility's approach to plastics circularity. The Polymer Center in Las Vegas is the first in a national network under development to enable greater circularity for rigid plastics and support sustainable packaging.
"Through the Polymer Center, we're transforming the plastics value chain, from curbside collection to consumer packaging and back again," said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability. "Our goal is to enable true bottle-to-bottle circularity and help consumer packaged goods companies meet their recycled content goals. We're grateful to NWRA for recognizing the Polymer Center as 2023's Sustainability Game Changer."
Republic Services' Polymer Center processes sorted and baled plastics from recycling facilities, further separating plastics by type and colour to produce hot-washed recycled PET flake and colour-sorted olefins. Republic also launched the Blue Polymers joint venture to further process olefins from Polymer Centers and create custom drop-in solutions for packaging manufacturers.
"Republic Services Polymer Center's strategy has changed the circular economy narrative and demonstrated market-based circular solutions are viable," said NWRA President and CEO Michael E. Hoffman.
The company's second Polymer Center is under development in Indianapolis, where it will be co-located with a Blue Polymers facility. Construction is expected to be completed later in 2024. Additional sites are planned to create a regional hub-and-spoke network for nationwide coverage.
