Companies could create demand for up to 800,000 tons of recycled household flexible plastics annually across eight promising product applications, according to a new report from Delterra and Eunomia. Developing these end markets will be essential if expanding Extended Producer Responsibility programs are to translate increased collection into higher recycling rates.
Flexible plastics, including food packaging, are among the largest and fastest-growing categories of plastic waste, yet less than 5% are currently recycled. As EPR programs expand across North America, significantly more household flexible plastic is expected to be collected and processed. However, collection alone will not be enough: companies must create demand by testing and incorporating recycled flexible plastics into products at scale.
In Building Markets for Recycled Household Flexible Plastics: Identifying End Uses to Meet EPR Goals, the team evaluated more than 40 potential applications and identified eight with the greatest potential to provide technically feasible, high-volume markets for recycled household polyethylene film.
To identify where companies can most effectively create demand, the report evaluates more than 40 potential products against four criteria:
- Additionality beyond previous trials: whether a trial would add to, rather than duplicate, testing done in the past
- Technical feasibility for reclaimers: the likelihood that recyclers can produce suitable recycled feedstock from household flexible plastics
- Technical feasibility for converters: the likelihood that manufacturers can successfully adapt their products to use this feedstock
- Potential to absorb recycled material: the volume of recycled household flexible plastics that each market can use by 2032
The analysis comes as North American EPR policies establish increasingly ambitious recycling requirements, including targets of up to 65% for some categories of single-use plastic packaging by 2032. Yet less than 5% of flexible plastics are recycled today, and fewer than 30 North American reclaimers mechanically recycle polyethylene film. As collection expands, the central challenge will increasingly be whether manufacturers can use the resulting material in products at sufficient scale.
“A circular economy isn't created by collecting more material – it's created when recycled materials become valuable inputs for new products.” said Shannon Bouton, Delterra´s President & CEO. “Unless manufacturers create demand for the material coming out of recycling systems, we simply shift the bottleneck from collection and sorting to market demand. By identifying where recycled household flexible plastics can be successfully used, we hope this report helps shift the conversation from collection and sorting alone to include building the markets that will make higher recycling rates possible.”
“The hardest part of building markets for recycled materials isn’t ambition – it’s honestly assessing what’s technically and economically feasible and being willing to follow the evidence where it leads,” said Sarah Edwards, North America Director and Private Lead, Eunomia. “That rigor is what turns good intentions into real markets. Getting the analysis right on which end uses can actually work is the foundation everything else depends on.”
A Market Opportunity of Up to 800,000 Tons Annually
The eight applications identified share a common profile: they are generally not food-contact-sensitive, can tolerate color variation and imperfections, and are more forgiving of variability in resin composition. The opportunities include a mix of injection-molded rigid products and thicker-gauge, mixed-color film applications.
Together, the eight applications could potentially absorb an estimated 800,000 tons of recycled household polyethylene (PE) film per year. Three applications alone — industrial liners, impermeable construction membranes and dark-colored trash bags — could account for approximately 600,000 tons per year, or 75% of the total potential demand.
From Market Insight to Action
Identifying promising end uses is only the first step. The next phase is to test how recycled household flexible plastics perform in real-world products, including their technical performance, product quality and the economics of replacing virgin resin with recycled content.
“As a leading packaging producer, Amcor wants to be at the front in thinking about how more flexible plastic packaging can be recycled. Industry has an important role to play in making EPR systems successful, and supporting efforts like this is how we act on that. It’s central to the role a packaging producer should take in the circular economy,” noted David Clark, Chief Sustainability Officer at Amcor.
“Without strong demand for recycled household flexible plastics, there is little incentive to expand recycling at scale. That’s why we chose to support this work. Building viable end markets requires collaboration across the value chain, and by working together to identify and validate new end uses for these materials, we can help create the demand needed to drive investment, grow recycling, and keep valuable materials in productive use,” emphasized Linda Roman, Director of Packaging, R&D North American Fellow at The Kraft Heinz Company.
To help advance this work, Delterra and Eunomia developed the Recycled Flexibles Demand Accelerator, funded by Amcor and Kraft Heinz. The initiative is designed to support the trials, partnerships and real-world testing needed to turn promising end-use opportunities into viable markets for recycled household flexible plastics.
Delterra and Eunomia are inviting manufacturers, converters, reclaimers and other organizations interested in advancing recycled flexible plastics markets to join the Recycled Flexibles Demand Accelerator and explore opportunities to collaborate on testing and market development.
For more information, visit www.eunomia.eco Home - Delterra