Next meeting: Monday, Oct 6 at 5:45

[Melinda Wolff]

Agenda items thus far:

• update on the DelCo Zero Waste Plan (Mike)
• update on the bill to ban incineration in Phila (Mike). 
• (both of these above items were discussed at the Sept ZW meeting; see minutes from that meeting)
• update on the 9/30, 4-6pm presentation at the Ambler Theater by MontCo on its 2050 Plan (Melinda) 

Please send me suggestions for other items to add to the agenda.  Otherwise, I will subject you to photos from my recent trip to Greece!

Melinda

[Jim Wylie]

Let's see - talk about trash incinerators or a slideshow of Melinda's trip to Greece. Doesn't seem like a tough decision. 😁

Actually I am traveling next week and will not be able to join the ZW mtg this month. 

I did want to share this sad news about the artificial turf recycling company going out of business and leaving a mountain of old plastic (PFAS-laden) turf for Schuylkill County to deal with. Is on front page of Phila Inquirer today, but here is a MSN link in case the Inq article has a paywall.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/recycle-company-s-bankruptcy-leaves-tons-of-discarded-artificial-turf-across-the-state/ar-AA1NAuuP

Jim

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[Carol Armstrong]

Thanks Jim for showing the article, though as a non subscriber I couldn't see the whole article.

There are recyclers going out of business across the country.  Maybe in Europe as well?  It is a complex economic set of interdependent factors, amounting to there not being enough post-consumer PET and HDPE to recycle and too much virgin plastic staying stateside, so recycled plastic cannot compete.  Even chemical recycling is struggling as the process is very expensive.  The chemical companies who are trying to profit from post-consumer plastics never invested in the business and technological side of recycling so there are not many solutions.  They want to recycle some plastics in a way that it can be recycled 'forever', but it is too expensive.

I'll be able to make this meeting, and I look forward to the discussion.

Good travels!

Carol

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sc-pa-chapter-zero-waste-team/CAM1DD5rLRbLBTs%3D4h9n-goiwtnmY2p8LeZEKhn%3DtNn5nJ0h3QQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Carol Armstrong]

Thanks Jim - I went too fast - I was able to get into the MSN link.  Good article.  The more I learn about recycling, the more it is apparent that it is not an answer worth promulgating.  Reduction in production has to be goal #1, 2, and 3, and producer responsibility goal #4.  Recycling is kind of like a net intended to capture water - full of holes in its promises, its controls, actual vs public communication of its processes (Re-match admitted its process contaminated the environment), and its costs.  Even the most sophisticated chemical recycling involving pyrolysis, that reduces several plastics back into basic monomer/polymer plastic that could be formed over and over, might not be profitable.  So a lot of hopeful projections, but little progress.

On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:51 AM Jim Wylie <jimw...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sc-pa-chapter-zero-waste-team/CAM1DD5rLRbLBTs%3D4h9n-goiwtnmY2p8LeZEKhn%3DtNn5nJ0h3QQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Corinne Dieterle]

Thank you Melinda

See you then

Good travels Jim

Corinne

Www.corinnedieterle.com

Sent from my iPhone so please excuse any typos

On Sep 30, 2025, at 7:26 PM, Carol Armstrong <mne...@gmail.com> wrote:



Thanks Jim - I went too fast - I was able to get into the MSN link.  Good article.  The more I learn about recycling, the more it is apparent that it is not an answer worth promulgating.  Reduction in production has to be goal #1, 2, and 3, and producer responsibility goal #4.  Recycling is kind of like a net intended to capture water - full of holes in its promises, its controls, actual vs public communication of its processes (Re-match admitted its process contaminated the environment), and its costs.  Even the most sophisticated chemical recycling involving pyrolysis, that reduces several plastics back into basic monomer/polymer plastic that could be formed over and over, might not be profitable.  So a lot of hopeful projections, but little progress.

On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:51 AM Jim Wylie <jimw...@gmail.com> wrote:

Let's see - talk about trash incinerators or a slideshow of Melinda's trip to Greece. Doesn't seem like a tough decision. 😁

Actually I am traveling next week and will not be able to join the ZW mtg this month. 

I did want to share this sad news about the artificial turf recycling company going out of business and leaving a mountain of old plastic (PFAS-laden) turf for Schuylkill County to deal with. Is on front page of Phila Inquirer today, but here is a MSN link in case the Inq article has a paywall.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/recycle-company-s-bankruptcy-leaves-tons-of-discarded-artificial-turf-across-the-state/ar-AA1NAuuP

<image.png>

Jim

On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM Melinda Wolff <wolff...@gmail.com> wrote:

Agenda items thus far:

• update on the DelCo Zero Waste Plan (Mike)
• update on the bill to ban incineration in Phila (Mike). 
• (both of these above items were discussed at the Sept ZW meeting; see minutes from that meeting)
• update on the 9/30, 4-6pm presentation at the Ambler Theater by MontCo on its 2050 Plan (Melinda) 

Please send me suggestions for other items to add to the agenda.  Otherwise, I will subject you to photos from my recent trip to Greece!

Melinda

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[Melinda Wolff]

Few thoughts on Carol's comments:

CA: "There are recyclers going out of business across the country.  Maybe in Europe as well?  It is a complex economic set of interdependent factors, amounting to there not being enough post-consumer PET and HDPE to recycle and too much virgin plastic staying stateside, so recycled plastic cannot compete."

MSW:  Currently, there is a worldwide overcapacity in virgin PE and PP, so it is often sold at or near cost.  This makes recycled PE/PP plastic economically uncompetitive; it  has to be collected, sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed, and most consumers won't pay extra for that.

CA:  "The chemical companies who are trying to profit from post-consumer plastics never invested in the business and technological side of recycling so there are not many solutions. They want to recycle some plastics in a way that it can be recycled 'forever', but it is too expensive."

MSW:  My understanding is that they did invest but not making much money.  Many of the issues are not actually with the recycling part but in the collection, sorting, and cleaning of mixed plastic waste, leading to a short supply of clean, well-sorted plastic to use as input to recycling processes. 

To use recycled plastic for food contact, you have to use chemical recycling, as this produces something that is chemically identical to virgin plastic.  Currently, mechanical recycling can't be used for food contact .

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