How does the APR Design® Guide make an impact?
Recycling is a highly interconnected system, and the success of each stage relies on what comes before and after it in the cycle. The APR Design® Guide closes the loop between package designers and plastic recyclers with a forum allowing collaboration toward the common goal of creating a Circular Economy for plastics. APR Preferred package designs drive the Circular Economy by enabling the highest value end use applications for recycled plastic - so plastic packaging can stay in the recycling system and out of landfills and the environment.
In a circular economy, consumer product companies are their own material suppliers.
APR Preferred design for recycling supports a healthy recycling system and increases the supply of high quality PCR. Companies benefit when their packaging is not only recyclable, but also yields high quality post-consumer resin (PCR).
By minimizing contamination from the start, good design reduces unnecessary costs throughout the recycling value chain and improves productivity for plastic reclaimers. In turn, this ensures that brands are getting high-quality post-consumer resin (PCR) that meets performance requirements in their new products and packages.
Scope of the APR Design® Guide
This guide covers plastic items entering the postconsumer collection and recycling systems most widely used in industry today. Collection methods include single stream and dual stream MRFs, deposit container systems, mixed waste facilities, and grocery store rigid plastic and film collection systems. The impact of package design on automated sortation process steps employed in a single stream MRF, as well as high volume recycling processes is of primary consideration. Items recovered in systems where they are source-selected and sent to a recycler specializing in this particular item are specifically excluded from this guide.
To see APR Design Guidance in context with other important recycling system topics, review The Recycling Partnership's Pathway to Circularity: Recyclability Framework.
