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Successful Post-Consumer Recycling Programs

Some businesses are already running successful post-consumer recycling programs. Check out some success stories here.

  • Bag Central Station In order to create a convenient, efficient and effective program, the City of Phoenix partnered with the private sector to recycle plastic bags instead of banning plastic bags or requiring mandatory recycling. The City of Phoenix worked with the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance (AFMA) and retailers to develop consistent branding around plastic bag recycling.
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  • S.C.R.A.P S.C.R.A.P. is a for profit branch of the non-profit California Grey Bears that works in conjunction with Santa Cruz County to provide a convenient way for local businesses to recycle film, as well as cardboard. They offer a pickup service and they accept cardboard and film/bags dropped off at their facility. They service 200+ businesses in Santa Cruz.
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  • Penn State University For Penn State University, the plastic film and bag recycling program provides two main benefits: lowering costs--on fuel and tipping fees, and significantly reducing its landfilled waste stream. Since 2007, PSU has had a campus-wide plastic film and bag recycling program, which collects plastic film and bags from approximately 900 locations on campus, consolidates it in a central location, and transports it to a local MRF for further processing.
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  • Univ. of North Carolina - Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a nationally recognized leader in collegiate recycling and sustainability programs. Since 2009, two university offices – Housing and Residential Education and Waste Reduction and Recycling – have run two programs to recycle plastic bags and films. One recycles the heavy gauge bags which cover new mattresses and the other collects and recycles bags, film and wraps from move-in weekend activities.
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  • Patagonia, Inc. At Patagonia, Inc., company founders and employees understand that protecting the environment is good for our planet and is good business, too. For 40 years, the company has made environmental consciousness a part of its business plan. Their ongoing efforts to recycle the plastic bags and wraps that protect their products in transit to their retail stores demonstrate a tangible commitment to conserving our planet’s natural resources and protecting our environment.
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  • N.S. Farrington N.S. Farrington & Co. is a wholesale distributor of industrial laundry and dry cleaning supplies based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2010, at the request of a dry cleaner owner, they started accepting "bags of bags" for backhaul back to their warehouse. By summer 2014, they were baling 500 pounds of plastic film and bags every week collected from customers around the Southeast. This story highlights the genesis and growth of their program.
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  • Business-to-Business Pilot Program This “business-to-business” recycling program is a collaborative effort between the Orange County (NC) Solid Waste Management Department and local merchants to recycle used plastic bags and film. Partnerships are formed in which large "anchor" stores serve as collection points for clean, used plastic bags and film from their customers and from nearby smaller merchants.
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  • Stanford University Over the last 35 years, the recycling program at Stanford University has grown from a student-led project to an award-winning, campus-wide program. The University and PSSI started a plastic film and bag recycling program in 2002 to divert more waste from its landfill stream. Currently, PSSI collects bags and film from 600 buildings, 700 on-campus residences and a drop-off location at a recycling center.
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  • It's In the Bag! It's in the Bag is a plastic bag and film recycling program managed by the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM). It's in the Bag provides the opportunity for consumers and businesses to recycle plastic bags and film, oftentimes in communities where other recycling options do not readily exist. The program ensures that millions of pounds of film plastic is diverted from the landfill while at the same time providing employment for adults with disabilities, who collect and sort the plastic material in It's in the Bag participating communities.
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COVID-19 and Plastic Film Recycling

NOTE: Plastic bags/wraps typically do not get recycled in curbside bins. They must be returned to participating drop-off locations such as retail stores for recycling.

Thank you for recycling your plastic bags and wraps.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, we urge you to recycle your plastic bags, wraps, and other film packaging at drop-off locations ONLY WHEN AND WHERE POSSIBLE.

Some stores have temporarily halted collection of plastic bags and wraps. And some of you are not able to venture out. If either is the case, please collect your bags/wraps at home until events change. Bags/wraps can be compressed and stored inside another plastic bag.

As always, please follow the direction of your local and state public health officials, and do not shop or take anything to a store/drop-off if there’s reason to suspect anyone in your household has been exposed to the coronavirus. If you do shop, please take appropriate steps to help protect store employees so they can continue to provide essential products during this crisis.

Thank you for your support of plastic film recycling. Recycling contributes to sustainability and provides valuable materials for American manufacturers, so we encourage you to continue recycling when and where possible.

Be safe.

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