First-ever winners of the APR Recycling Leadership Awards named

The winners of the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) inaugural APR Recycling Leadership Awards were announced during the Opening Plenary Session at the 2025 Plastics Recycling Conference (PRC). Launched in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the APR Design Guide for Plastics Recyclability, the awards recognize packaging designers, manufacturers, researchers, or innovators who are improving recycling for plastics.

Award categories focus on unique contributions to moving plastics recycling forward.  

Here are the winners: 

Outstanding Leadership Award - Debra Wilson

Debra's outstanding commitment and passion have driven over 33 years of involvement in plastic standardization activities. Her contributions have been instrumental in developing the APR Design guidance for rigid polyolefins, ensuring alignment with industry practices for package design, collection, and recyclability.

Recycling Technology Innovation Award - UNIFI

UNIFI is one of the world's preeminent textile manufacturing innovators and a key leader in textile-to-textile recycling. Its REPREVE brand has transformed billions of recycled plastic bottles into durable, high-performance textiles including apparel, home furnishings, and automotive products.

Package Design Innovation Award - Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive spearheaded a paradigm shift in toothpaste package design. Dr. Jun Wang led groundbreaking innovation to design and manufacture the mono-material Samson tube and subsequently share the intellectual property publicly — thereby rapidly shifting an entire product category to recycle-ready packaging.  Today, 90 percent of toothpaste tubes and 75 percent of all HDPE tubes on the US market are designed for recyclability.

PCR Utilization Award - KW Container

KW Container, with its sister company KW Plastics, pioneered recycling polypropylene (PP) into paint containers at scale. Today, KW Plastics is the leading recycler of HDPE and PP in North America. KW Containers' product line has consumed over 1 billion pounds of curbside collected PP over the last 14 years. These high volumes and consistent demand-pull have facilitated the launch of residential PP collection and helped to sustain it.

Winners will discuss their sustainability journeys, overcoming roadblocks, and advice to scale recycling innovations during a PRC Lunch & Learn panel on Tuesday, March 25 at 1 PM. 

"We are pleased to honor the winners of the inaugural APR Recycling Leadership Awards on a national stage at PRC this year," said Steve Alexander, APR president and CEO. "The APR Design Guide is widely recognized across the globe as the authority on plastics packaging design for recyclability. As we celebrate 30 years of impact, we commend those who are driving significant change across the value chain."