NLCRC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: PLASTIPAK PACKAGING, INC.
Welcome to our series aimed at spotlighting the National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition (NLCRC) members and partners.
Discover how these companies are addressing pressing challenges around environmental sustainability issues, such as energy, greenhouse gas emission reduction, packaging, product recyclability, and what inspires each of them to include lubricant packaging recovery and recycling into their ESG objectives and how they hope to make an impact in the lubricant value chain.
For our first series, we present Plastipak Packaging, which is a founding and principal member of the NLCRC.
Connect with Plastipak on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Plastipak’s Innovation in Lubricant Container Recycling
Plastipak is a global leader in the packaging and recycling industries. Recognizing the environmental implications of packaging, at Plastipak, Packaging Matters™ in making goods and essentials available for everyday life. The company's purpose is to create products which inspire choice, provide value and are sustainably balanced for its customers as Plastipak puts its Consumers First, Always!™ Given the company's mission and sustainability commitments, its participation as a founding member of the NLCRC makes sense. Producing over 40 billion packaging units per year, with industry leading capacity and expertise in the production of recycled resin, Plastipak continuously strives to reduce the impact of its products and maximize resource efficiency. As a founding member of the NLCRC, Plastipak is continuing its heritage of innovation by building a sustainable future for the recycling of plastic lubricant containers.
How does Plastipak’s NLCRC membership help the company to meet its sustainability goals and commitments?
Our focus is to continue to enhance and develop our recycling technologies, capacity and geographical spread to increase availability of recycled resins. In 2021, within our supply chain of Clean-Tech Recycling and Plastipak, over 10 billion bottles per year were recycled to make new bottles. Given that the NLCRC’s vision includes the collection of lubricant containers, it provides a means for Plastipak to retrieve those bottles and use them again. Ultimately, working with the NLCRC directly supports Plastipak’s sustainability goals centered around the circular economy, as well as, furthering its environmental goals of reducing operational emissions.
What does Plastipak value most about the collaborative nature and membership with NLCRC?
The NLCRC is working towards bringing service providers and retailers, collection companies, recycling companies to recycle lubricant containers – which are made from HDPE, a hard-to-degrade plastic-, into post-consumer recycled content.
“The association is fantastic. I'm really excited to see our competitors, brand owners, and others on this team dedicated to solving this problem. NLCRC is a unique coalition because they developing a supply chain to recover material that can be used for other applications including bottle back to bottle.” ~ Jack Pacente, Vice President of Global Sustainability, Plastipak
The value of collective action is noted. Addressing a challenge as complex as recovering post-consumer plastic packaging for recycling is not feasible for most individual companies, particularly when products are distributed throughout multiple regions and markets. Cost-effective solutions require collaboration with multiple stakeholders (including competitors), both upstream and downstream of the lubricant value chain.
“Other individual companies have been working on a solution for this challenge for many, many years. It wasn't really until this organization formed and we came together collaboratively that we've got in a relatively short time an upcoming pilot program and action plan to begin to establish a program in the United States that recovers and recycles plastic packaging used to transport lubricants for commercial and consumer use that, at a minimum, meets the definition of recyclable.” ~ Kevin Whitehead, Category Manager at Plastipak
What specific problems does your involvement with the NLCRC address?
“Collection is the biggest challenge we face in our industry today and this trend will continue as we see more brand owners increase their post-consumer recycled content (PCR) content in their packages. Given the NLCRC’s focus on building a sustainable future for the recycling of plastic lubricant containers, as a group, we are aiming to solve the collection side of the problem. Plastipak has led the way in the HDPE and PET circular economy when we started our first recycling facility over 30 years ago and the work that NLCRC is doing aligns with our long-standing business strategy of bottle-to-bottle recycling, using the output to directly support our customers' Sustainability goals”. Jack Pacente, Vice President of Global Sustainability, Plastipak
About the Plastipak
Plastipak Packaging Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plastipak Holdings Inc., is a global leader in the packaging and recycling industries. With innovation as a key driver, Plastipak operates over 60 sites in the United States, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia including 5 Bottle to Bottle Recycling facilities that recycle both rHDPE and rPET. Through our network of facilities, we are responsible for producing more than 40 billion units annually. Its customers include some of the world’s most respected and recognized consumer brands within the aerosol; food and beverage; consumer cleaning; personal care; and automotive, industrial and agricultural product markets.
Plastipak is a leading innovator in the packaging industry, holding more than 1,500 patents for its state-of-the-art package designs and manufacturing processes. Plastipak’s development of award-winning technologies and commitment to sustainability reflect its dedication to putting Consumers First, Always!
Plastipak was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Plymouth, Michigan.
About NLCRC
The National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition or "NLCRC" is an industry-led technical coalition, established in 2021 by a committed consortium of lubricant manufacturers and associated plastic packaging manufacturers, focused on establishing solutions for post-consumer recovery and recycling of plastic lubricant containers. Members include Castrol, Valvoline, Pennzoil - Quaker State Company, Graham Packaging, Plastipak Packaging, Berry Global, Petroleum Packaging Council, and Chevron. For more information, visit our website, or connect with NLCRC on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you have any questions or inquiries, send us an email at hello@nationallcrc.com.
