We get asked quite regularly why we aren’t more active in recycling plastics. It all boils down to economics. And if the economics don’t match up, you end up with dismal failure. Many people have pushed for mandated percentages of plastics recycling in many areas around the world and some in some places, percentages have been set with deadlines for compliance. What none of the people involved in legislating such mandates have considered is what happens when the price bottoms out? You get lots of collected material sitting around that nobody can ship. Businesses go belly up because they can’t sell their overpriced inventory. There is a lot more consideration to be made than simply our desire to recycle all the materials we can.

This certainly is good news for all those highly interested in plastic bottle recycling. And if it’s true that the material is biodegradable and compostable, that presents even better benefits. The hardest thing to buy is that if the material is made from plastic beverage containers, composting it is going to add some sort of petroleum base into the soil and I question how good it can be. That said, I still think this is another one to keep a close eye on to see how this new material is received in the packaging world.