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Most plastics are burned or buried at the end of a product’s life. In the US in 2006 this was 30 million tons (or 60 billion ponds). This is a huge waste of non-renewable fossil fuel resources. If we build a system that recycles more of these plastics we will reduce that waste and ultimately our costs. We will also do the right thing for our environment and possibly earn some favorable publicity for our industry.

Polypropylene Proposal to the recorded media industry:

In order to make recycling of obsolete media products more effective, limit the plastic used in media packaging to a single polymer: polypropylene

The current CD, DVD and games recycling stream consists of three major groups of materials:

1 – Polycarbonate Discs
Discs are mostly polycarbonate with some inks, reflective metals, coatings and adhesives. In the recycling process discs are broken up and chemical solvents are used to separate the polycarbonate from the other materials. In some locations (especially in North America) these solvents are carefully controlled and in other locations the used solvents are simply dumped. An optical disc is a hi-tech product and considering an alternate polymer is beyond the scope of this proposal.

2 – Paper / Paperboard Packaging
This is a renewable material with a well organized recycling system that currently captures about 54% of output in North America. Paper is relatively easily separated from the plastics in most packaging configurations. Digi-paks are a significant exception as the plastic trays are glued to the paperboard covers, making them hard to separate. In general, the various grades of waste paper do not need to be sorted for effective recycling. The relative merit of paper or plastic in packaging is beyond the scope of this proposal.

3 – Mixed Plastic Packaging
Many different plastics are currently used to make packaging for recorded media. I have included those that I am most familiar with. The percentages indicate my educated guess about the relative volume of each polymer.

PP – Polypropylene (70%) – Used in the standard DVD Amaray-style case and most games packaging. Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) – Used as an outer clear wrap.

PS – Polystyrene (23%) – Used in the standard CD “jewel case”, trays for digi-paks, disc holders in some multi-disc DVD packages.

PET – Polyethylene Terephthalate, APET – Amorphous PET, RPET – Recycled PET (4%) – Used for clear folding cartons and some vacuum formed digi-trays

PVC – Polyvinyl Chloride (1%) – Used for clear folding cartons. Formerly commonly used, PVC use is diminishing due to its negative environmental impacts.

PE – Polyethelyne (1%) – Used in some clear outer wrap applications

PLA – Polylactic Acid (1%) – Made from corn, PLA has been used in a few limited recorded media packaging applications. The expense of the clarifiers required for clear injection molded parts and the low temperature tolerances of vacuum formed clear parts, such as digi-trays, have been barriers.

This proposal is focused on reducing this list of plastics to one: polypropylene

Why a single polymer?
Mixed plastics are difficult to sort during recycling. Many plastics look and feel similar to each other, making accurate identification labor intensive. Because of this, mixed plastic waste is often shipped out of North America for processing. Sorting recycled plastics accurately is important. While different plastics may look similar to a casual observer, many have very different characteristics. For example: one plastic may melt and be workable at a low temperature while another may require much higher temperatures. The high temperature required to melt one could burn the other, ruining the product. If the only plastic used in media packaging were polypropylene, the need to sort would be vastly reduced. Removing the sorting makes recycling much more cost effective. These recycled materials are more likely to be used in North America, eliminating the financial and environmental cost of shipping mixed plastics overseas.

Plastic recycling is one of the great un-tapped opportunities in sustainability. While paper recycling rates are relatively high and growing at 54%, plastic recycling is in its infancy. About 7% of polypropylene and 4% of polystyrene is currently recycled. The rest is usually incinerated (31%) or land filled (69%). Plastic is precious because most of them use non-renewable fossil fuels as feedstock. Recycling is the best option and avoiding the mixed plastic problem is just one step toward building a better plastics recycling system. In order to make recycling more effective we should also make a point of including the resin code for polypropylene on all components.

Why polypropylene?

Polypropylene is already the dominant plastic.
The packaging used in the Video and Games industries is already mostly PP. Packaging in the audio industry uses mostly PS. The other plastics are used in relatively low volumes. If the industry is to switch to a single plastic, switching to all PP will create the least disruption.

Polypropylene is a relatively benign plastic.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) & Nations Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) recently released a report: Comparing Packaging Options for Compact Discs, An Environmental and Toxicological Assessment. This study compared the relative merits of various packaging materials including a direct comparison of PP vs. PS in the common audio jewel case. The study was based on a life cycle assessment and unequivocally favors polypropylene over polystyrene and recommends making all jewel cases from polypropylene. The Wal-Mart Sustainable Packaging Scorecard also favors PP over PS.

Product by Product Recommendations:
DVD & Game Cases – These are already PP and flow easily into the PP recycling stream. While most of these cases use clear windows made of PP, some cases uses other plastics. All these clear windows should be made of PP to avoid contaminating the recycling stream.

Jewel Cases – Substitute PP for PS. Many tests have already been run and the results look promising. One source indicated that Wal-Mart is pushing heavily to have music CD jewel cases switched to PP by fall of 2009. Making this substitution is not just a simple matter of changing the PS pellets to PP pellets. There are additional complications such as shrinkage rates that require additional one time tooling costs.

Digi-trays – These are typically made of PS and they could be made of PP with tooling changes similar to the jewel case. PP digi-trays have been successfully tested and produced in commercial quantities.

Disc Holders for multi-disc DVD sets – Some Amaray-style DVD packages include a pivoting disc holder. Some are made of PS and some of PP. Making all of these of PP would simplify the recycling stream.

Folding Cartons – PET, APET and RPET and a small amount of PVC are the plastics most commonly used for clear folding cartons. This type of carton is frequently used for clear O-Cards and slipcases for multi-disc sets. PP sheets sometimes require a sizing coat to insure good ink adhesion. Scoring and folding of PP can be a little more complicated than with some other plastics. PP is not as clear as some other plastics, but clarifiers are getting better and less expensive all the time.

Printed “Paper” Inserts – Most Amaray-style inserts for DVD and booklets and inlays used for audio are currently printed on conventional plant fiber based paper. There are some “papers” made of PP that could be substituted. Tests are currently underway to investigate how well these PP “papers” perform in the current PP recycling stream. If this proves practical and economical, it maybe possible to eliminate the need to separate the printed inserts from the plastic packaging during recycling.

Advantages of polypropylene:

• More flexible, far less likely to break reducing customer frustration, store returns and manufacturing scrap;
• 15% lighter than PS, uses less material and costs less to ship;
• Less expensive pound for pound than the other plastics currently used in disc packaging;
• Lower environmental impact than most other plastics.

Disadvantages of polypropylene:

• Polypropylene is cloudy, less clear than some other polymers. The plastics industry has been making great strides in new clarification techniques and expects this trend to continue;
• Polypropylene requires different tooling from polystyrene, an additional one-time cost.

The goal of this proposal is to avoid waste by increasing the volume of recycled plastics. Currently 93% of polypropylene is either burned or buried at the end of a product’s life, a huge waste of non-renewable fossil fuel resources. In addition to increasing the volume, we should investigate creating a higher quality of recycled plastics and build a closed loop or cradle to cradle system for our products. Recycling as usually practiced today is really down-cycling: recycling of a material into a material of lesser quality. Recycled polypropylene from old DVD cases is typically used to make less demanding products of lower value. I am aware of at least one encouraging situation where a DVD case supplier is actively looking for old DVD cases to reprocess into new DVD cases. Depending on the formulation of PP used, the scrapped cases can be used to make new cases. My understanding is that opaque impact copolymer and clear random copolymer can both be recycled in a cradle to cradle loop. Homopolymer is apparently not as easily recycled and the recycling stream might work a little better if the industry avoided it. I understand there are many complications in pursuing a closed-loop system, but trust we have enough plastics experts within MESA who can help guide the way. When we start designing with end of life in mind, we’ll make even more impact on reducing waste and ultimately our packaging costs.

This proposal reflects my personal opinion and best guesses based on conversations with various people in the industry. I appreciate the input and hope I have accurately reflected the information they provided. I welcome your opinions and any information that would contribute to creating a more effective plastics recycling system.

Submitted by Steve Robinson
Director of GEM – Southwest

www.greenenterprise.ca
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323-660-2579