How Lubricant Container Recycling Supports the Circular Economy

In 2021, business sustainability and a heightened focus on Environment, Social Governance (ESG) took center stage in corporate board rooms due to increased investor scrutiny and consumer demand for industry to decarbonize, address biodiversity and deforestation, and develop solutions to our collective problems surrounding food security, water, and sanitation, plastics, and more. The release of the 2021 IPCC report indicates that climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying.  Notably, COP26 aimed to outline the plans of countries, cities, and industries to mitigate and adapt to climate change with the conference culminating in mixed results towards a path forward.

How does this apply to plastic lubricant containers? 

For starters, it means products and materials need to be reused. Businesses sit at the core of the transition to a circular economy, and the collaboration with suppliers and customers to build the infrastructure needed for plastic lubricant containers is the path towards a system that benefits the whole society.

Currently, most of the products and disposal systems are designed in a way that more than 80% of waste goes to landfills, is incinerated, or leaks into the natural environment. Once products and materials are designed without the component of reuse, it is hard to reverse due to the lack of infrastructure for post-consumer use. With the circular design of products, materials, and processes, the creation of waste and pollution can be prevented right at the core or reverted after post-consumer disposal.

In the US, the National Lubricant Recycling Coalition (NLCRC) is working towards redesigning the economy of the lubricant container post-consumer use. The NLCRC is an industry-led technical coalition of lubricant manufacturers, plastic packaging manufacturers, and other lubricant value chain experts.

The NLCRC is working towards establishing a program that recovers and recycles plastic packaging used to transport lubricants for commercial and consumer use. We are focused on the lubricant packaging industry to develop a sustainable post-consumer recovery and recycling program across the US.

For the most part, post-consumer lubricant containers are currently deemed not recycled, and those that are collected are often later incinerated or landfilled due to their lack of market value. To begin the transition towards creating a market from these materials, the NLCRC is working to connect all stakeholders within the lubricant container value chain to collaborate and develop solutions for sustainable recovery and reuse – from manufacturers to customers, retailers to transporters, recyclers to packaging producers.

As a first step, we are preparing to launch a pilot project in a market in the US to demonstrate an understanding of market dynamics by partnering with service providers and retailers, collection companies (haulers), recycling companies (processors), and other critical stakeholders to then scale recycling solutions to lubricant containers in multiple cities and markets within the US and develop a national program that is economically sustainable and adapts easily to changing legislation.

This pilot will focus on the collection, transportation, and recycling of lubricant containers into post-consumer recycled content, with potential end-users as secondary materials or back into lubricant containers.

Inaction to contribute to reducing the impact of post-consumer disposal of hard-to-degrade plastics through sustainable solutions will cripple the economy. We must start investing in our future and change will start being visible until we all make it happen. 

From industries to households, everyone has an essential role in reducing the lubricant container waste problem in the US. The NLCRC founding leaders include Castrol, Valvoline, Pennzoil - Quaker State Company, Graham Packaging, Plastipak Packaging, Berry Global, and the Petroleum Packaging Council.

Learn how the NLCRC is addressing the waste problem by becoming a member. Connect with us through LinkedIn and Twitter. If you have any questions or inquiries, send us an email at hello@nationallcrc.com.