Home APR Design Hub APR Design® for Recyclability Training

APR Design® for Recyclability Training

For companies of any size that design, manufacture or use plastic packaging, our training program will inspire and empower your team to design for recycling.

man holding a plastic bottle

Train With The Pros

APR firmly believes that companies want to design packaging that is recyclable and sustainable. But recycling can be complicated, and the rules are always changing. That’s why we created APR Design® Training. This live, customized session demystifies the recycling process and helps align internal teams on why and how to design for recyclability, all led by an APR executive with over 30 years of experience building and operating recycling facilities across the US.

a man presenting at an APR Design Training class

Inspire, Align & Empower Your Team

With engaging content that’s customized to meet a company’s unique needs, the training session can increase knowledge, tackle specific packaging challenges, inspire and align cross-functional teams, and ensure internal compliance with design for recycling principles.  Ultimately, this will help companies meet voluntary and legislative requirements, improve the supply of high-quality PCR, and reduce plastic waste going to landfills.

Types of Design Training

We offer a variety of options to meet your company’s needs.

Full Day Training

Customized, one-day session hosted at company location. Flexible attendee list—host company can include as many employees as needed.

Our most popular session! Design for recyclability works best when you have cross-functional alignment across departments and management levels. We can customize and lead a Full Day Training session for your company (on-site or virtual) to inspire and align your team.

 

TIMEFRAME: Approximately 6-7 hours

Express Training

Introductory 1-2 hour session hosted at company location. Flexible attendee list—host company can include as many employees as needed.

Choose an on-site or virtual training that features a customized, albeit abbreviated, opportunity for your team to get expert advice on packaging design.

 

 

 

 

 

TIMEFRAME: Approximately 1-2 hours

Training & Tours

Comprehensive sessions that combine classroom learning with guided tours of recycling facilities, hosted by APR. Open to individual registration.

A unique way to experience training alongside other brands and package creators. Classroom training is paired with live facility tours. This is ideal for companies just getting started thinking about recycling, or those that want tours incorporated into the training.

 

 

TIMEFRAME: Varies (1 – 2 Days)

  • “We had many different cross-functional team members attend the APR training. We’re a marketing-driven company, so when marketing proposes a solution, it’s important they come in eyes-wide-open, knowing the impact of one direction over another.”
    – Chris Max, Kraft Heinz – Research Lead Packaging Innovation
  • “Our Design & Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain team members dove deep into the intricacies of recycling with The Association of Plastic Recyclers. Thank you to Curt Cozart for guiding us through this training! Our team is prepared with the knowledge and resources to guide customers on their sustainability journeys.”
    – Courtney Walery, TricorBraun
  • “The APR Training provided valuable insights to the plastic packaging design process, implications to recycling, and real-world examples of sortation and processing through site visits. It was well formatted to be appealing to professionals regardless of their technical background or experience level.”
    – Grant Rodriguez Amlani, U.S. Plastics Pact

Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

Over 40 companies have completed APR Design® Training, and many repeat the training annually.

APR Design® Training FAQs

Several factors should be considered when making this decision:

  • How many people will be attending?  The full day program is most efficient with a large group since the cost is spread over a greater number of people. The two-day session is most affordable for groups of five and below. 
  • Do you want to discuss your specific packaging?  APR signs an NDA for the full day session so case studies involving your specific packaging are included. This is a very popular segment of the full day sessions. Attendees of the two-day session come from many companies, so a company’s specific packaging cannot be discussed there.
  • How in depth do you want to go? The longer sessions go much more in depth than the express training sessions.

Although conducted virtually during the pandemic, the longer programs are much more effective in person where they can be interactive. Most training is conducted in a hybrid mode, with the majority of the attendees and the facilitator in person together while some offsite employees join virtually.

Yes. We permit the training to be recorded if it is only used internally and not shared outside of the company.

No. Companies can include as many attendees as they like. Previous session attendance has ranged from eight to over 700. Most sessions are between 30 and 80 attendees.

We are plastic recycling specialists and focus on plastic packaging. However, we do discuss all materials at a high level when we review the recycling separation process. When asked, we can discuss the broad guidelines of the other packaging types.

No, APR Design® Training is not a training session on how to use the APR Design® Guide. It is much broader, covering the entire recycling process, policy, economics of recycling, and design fundamentals. There will be a review of the APR Design® Guide, but the training session will appeal to a broader audience.

The primary audience for training is packaging engineers. However, APR highly encourages companies to include cross-functional team members such as marketing, sustainability, legal, procurement, etc.  The training session reviews important fundamentals of the recycling process and why design for recycling is so important, which is crucial to get team members on the same page and working towards corporate sustainability goals.

Many companies hold APR Design® Training sessions annually, as part of their learning plan. It helps get new team members up to speed, and keeps all team members informed of frequent changes in design guidelines, policy, and plastics recycling processes.

The cost is dependent on the program you choose and your APR membership. Costs for the specific programs can be found on the full day, express, and training & tours webpages.

Yes, APR accepts credit card payments when requested through a third party credit service. There is a small upcharge for this service. 

Need More Information?

Please reach out and we will be happy to help!