Progress On The Atlanta Lubricant Container Recycling Pilot

Since 2022, the National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition (NLCRC) has been working on its industry-first collaborative recycling pilot program focusing on consumer plastic packaging for engine oil and other petroleum-based products.

The pilot includes collection points in approximately 40 locations in the Atlanta area, including retail stores, auto care centers, instant oil change locations, several commercial facilities, and a community collection site. The pilot is helping us gain a better understanding of the economic and market drivers for post-consumer recovery and recycling, and we are beginning to develop some collection best practices. There is still more to do as we look to expand collection capacity and seek ways to better measure waste disposal behaviors of consumers.

Additional participants from the heavy-duty segment and community collection sector have joined the pilot, which has helped to diversify the collection portfolio of participants. Collection volumes continue to rise, allowing us to explore innovations in collection efficiency and frequency to build a more sustainable and cost-effective model.

To date, the pilot efforts have helped recover over 6,300 lbs. of hard-to-degrade plastic, equivalent to over 52 thousand quart-size oil containers diverted from landfills.

The end-of-life management of lubricant containers is concerning due to the low rate of degradation of plastics in landfills and the lack of recycling. The NLCRC is looking into improving the recycling pilot by learning from data and increasing the recovery share of the to-be-disposed lubricant containers with the long-term goal of becoming a self-sustaining program. 

The National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition or “NLCRC” is an industry-led technical coalition established by a committed group of industry leaders in lubricant and associated plastic packaging manufacturing, focused on establishing solutions for post-consumer recovery and recycling of plastic lubricant containers.

NLCRC members include Berry Global, Castrol, Chevron, CKS Packaging Inc., Graham Packaging, Nexus Circular, Pennzoil - Quaker State Company, Petroleum Packaging Council, Plastipak Packaging, Safety-Kleen, and Valvoline.

Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Reach out with questions or inquiries at hello@nationallcrc.com.