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Welcome to Plastics Technology’s Recycling Supplement. We put this publication together with one overriding thought: You’re going to be using more post-consumer scrap in the future as you formulate your products. This will almost certainly be the case in the packaging market, but is just as likely to spill over into other end markets as well. We’re going green, make no mistake.

It will be a tall order for processors to comply as consumer advocates, lawmakers, big-box retailers, and brand owners/OEMs apply more pressure on the plastics industry to move more toward a “circular economy.”  Getting there will take time, will be complicated, and will cost money, but the good news is that technologies are emerging every day to clear the path.

In the following pages, you will find five different articles. We tee-up the supplement with a look at what some leading brand owners are putting on the table concerning post-consumer content in the products they’ll be buying from you in the future. We follow up with four articles looking at the plans processors who are ahead of the recycling curve have already put in motion, in four different processing technologies: blow molding, extrusion, injection molding, and compounding.

But don’t stop there. Log onto our website, ptonline.com. Click on magazine, then on Recycling Supplement. There, you’ll find longer versions of all five of these articles. You’ll also find exclusive online content, including a breakdown of chemical recycling technologies written by sustainability consultant Kim Holmes, and a piece on how recycled material is being utilized in 3D printing.