McDonald’s has joined The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, providing a multi-million-dollar grant to the initiative. With the funding, the coalition is introducing advanced sortation technology through its 100th recycling facility grant awarded to the US-based recycling assistance program Recycling Works to ensure PP stays out of landfills.

The Polypropylene Recycling Coalition works with stakeholders from across the value chain to increase access to curbside recycling for the material, ensure more recycling facilities can successfully sort it and stimulate end-markets by increasing the supply of recycled PP for reuse in new products.

“Since its start in 2020, the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition has awarded US$13 million in grant funding across 51 facilities,” shares Brittany LaValley, vice president of Material Advancement at The Recycling Partnership.

“These grants have enabled over 46 million people in the US to have new or improved access to recycle this valuable material. Now, we can honor their hard work by ensuring this material makes it to processors and is given a new life.”

Meanwhile, Kendra Levine, director for US Sustainability at McDonald’s, says the fast-food giant is committed to increasing recycling access and advancing infrastructure at material recovery facilities (MRFs) to support its customers in recycling McDonald’s packaging products.

“This investment in The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition is an important step toward our goal to increase polypropylene cup recovery across the US. Without proper sortation at recycling facilities, we cannot deliver what we all want — better recycling and a cleaner environment,” states Levine.

Automating for material recovery
Recycling Works’ Elkhart, Indiana facility will use the grant to transition from hand sortation to more optimized machine sortation of PP to decrease its landfill footprint and keep up with the forecasted growth in the region. This is the third grant provided by The Recycling Partnership to the Elkhart facility, along with a previous grant to support increased capture of aluminum and another to support increased capture and quality of PET.

“The grant provided to our facility by The Recycling Partnership will enable us to install additional optical sortation equipment to achieve higher recovery rate and purity,” says Daniel Zelaya, plant manager at RecyclingWorks.

“This will enable us to service our local communities and any new municipal contracts we take on in the future. Automation is the future for MRFs, and we are excited to partner with The Partnership.”

The Polypropylene Recycling Coalition prioritizes three areas: Increasing access to residential recycling for PP, ensuring more recycling facilities can successfully sort PP and supporting responsible end markets with a steady supply of recycled PP for reuse in packaging.

The coalition also recently awarded eleven grants to Balcones in Taylor, Texas; GFL in Traverse City, Michigan; West Tennessee Hub in Chester, Tennessee; Metrolina in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; RRRASOC in Southfield, Michigan; Olmsted County, Minnesota, and four grants to Casella locations in Auburn, Massachusetts, Charlestown, Massachusetts, Lewiston, Maine, and Willimantic, Connecticut.

“One of the key challenges with recycling PP is the ability to separate it from other plastics,” explains Spence Davenport, senior director of Processing Advancement at The Recycling Partnership.

“This grant will address that challenge head-on by helping RecyclingWorks invest in advanced sorting technology. It continues our commitment to ensuring PP can be delivered to processors and stays out of landfills.”