Pellets made from ocean scrap
Production-run pellets made partially from plastic ocean litter have become a reality, thanks to 18 months of cooperation between packaging brand designer Method and recycler Envision Plastics Industries LLC.
The first batch of plastic molding pellets streamed off the production line at Envision’s Chino plant around noon March 1.
Executives from both companies beamed with pride and excitement, and captured the technology breakthrough, snapping pictures and video. They then watched as the otherwise unassuming black pellets were loaded into 1,200-pound boxes, ready to be molded into a Method-designed container that will hit a major grocery chain this fall.
“We did a couple of fist pumps,” smiled Adam Lowry, co-founder, and chief greenskeeper of the San Francisco-based Method, whose packages are made from 100 percent recycled materials.
Lowry declined to name the product that will be made from the ocean scrap, but he said that it will be an existing product, in one of the company’s “iconic shapes.”
Method-brand products include household and personal-care injection molding items. The container will be made by a major plastics packaging blow molder.
The two companies overcame obstacles to reach this point.
A major one: Plastic made from ocean litter is more brittle than traditional recycled plastic because of exposure to ultraviolet light and ocean degradation. The two companies had to develop the right blend of materials for the pellets, which initially will be made from 75 percent traditionally recycled high density polyethylene and 25 percent ocean litter.
The first batch of plastic molding pellets streamed off the production line at Envision’s Chino plant around noon March 1.
Executives from both companies beamed with pride and excitement, and captured the technology breakthrough, snapping pictures and video. They then watched as the otherwise unassuming black pellets were loaded into 1,200-pound boxes, ready to be molded into a Method-designed container that will hit a major grocery chain this fall.
“We did a couple of fist pumps,” smiled Adam Lowry, co-founder, and chief greenskeeper of the San Francisco-based Method, whose packages are made from 100 percent recycled materials.
Lowry declined to name the product that will be made from the ocean scrap, but he said that it will be an existing product, in one of the company’s “iconic shapes.”
Method-brand products include household and personal-care injection molding items. The container will be made by a major plastics packaging blow molder.
The two companies overcame obstacles to reach this point.
A major one: Plastic made from ocean litter is more brittle than traditional recycled plastic because of exposure to ultraviolet light and ocean degradation. The two companies had to develop the right blend of materials for the pellets, which initially will be made from 75 percent traditionally recycled high density polyethylene and 25 percent ocean litter.
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