The Association of Plastic Recyclers announced Sept. 5 that it now considers degradable additives harmful to recycling, a policy change that excludes the materials from being used in products under its recycling design guide.
APR said the formal policy update is designed to protect the quality and yield of post-consumer recycled plastics. It will also line up its packaging design rules with other groups seeking to restrict degradable additives, such as the Consumer Goods Forum and the U.S. Plastics Pact.
"This change in categorization is based on research and reports published by independent research groups and better aligns APR with other NGOs in the recycling and circularity space as well as international manufacturers and retailers," said APR President and CEO Steve Alexander.
The change means that using degradable additives, nutrients and supplements would put a product in the "renders the package non-recyclable" category within APR's widely cited Design Guide.
"A package containing degradable additives cannot be detected using commercially available technologies and will affect both the quality and yield of post-consumer recycled resin (PCR) when they perform as designed," APR said in its policy statement.
The policy statement said it applies to both degradable and biodegradable materials that are not certified as compostable, including bio-assimilating, oxo-degradable, oxo-biodegradable, enzymatic, anaerobic, and photodegradable materials used in plastics packaging, including films.
The new policy, however, got strong pushback from the London-based Biodegradable Plastics Association, which called it "an anti-competitive attack" and said products with oxo-biodegradable masterbatches can be safely recycled.
"This attitude by APR will not only damage the environment by frightening people away from adopting this very useful technology … but it will damage the recyclers themselves," said BPA Chairman Michael Stephen.
He said that tracers can also be included in masterbatches so that the additives can be detected by recycling equipment, and he said degradables technology can help address public concern over plastic that is not effectively recycled or landfilled, and that leaks into the environment.
"Campaigns against plastic are based on its persistence in the environment, and they are reducing demand for plastic recyclate and reducing availability of plastic feedstock for recyclers," Stephen said. "It is that fraction of waste which is causing so much public concern, and oxo-biodegradable technology has been designed to deal with it, by making it biodegrade much more quickly, leaving no microplastics behind."
APR, however, pointed to 13 other groups, companies or governments that acted to restrict some type of degradable additives, including the European Union's single-use plastic directive that does not allow products made with oxo-degradable plastic on the market, as well as the National Association of PET Container Resources, the Plastics Industry Association and the European flexible plastics circularity group Ceflex.
It also pointed to similar statements from Walmart, the grocery chain Aldi and the World Wildlife Fund.
APR said degradable additives can present technical challenges to mechanical recycling, hurt the long-term performance of plastics by reducing their physical properties in molding, and lower their market value.
"If the demand for recycled plastic were to decline because of these technical performance considerations, it could result in fewer end use applications for post-consumer plastics," APR said.
The Belgium-based recycling standards group RecyClass, which also has a policy restricting degradable additives, said in the APR statement that the move matches global standards.
"The latest updates to the APR Design Guide are a positive move toward global harmonization of recyclability principles," said Chairman Paolo Glerean. "Aligning recommendations on different packaging features, especially those with negative impact for recycling, is essential for boosting wide-spread, circular innovation of plastic materials."
As well, an executive at plastics packaging giant Berry Global Group Inc. said the move reflects a broader consensus.
"There is a clear consensus from the broader environmental and packaging communities that degradable additives are expected to negatively affect plastic recycling," said Rob Flores, vice president of sustainability.
The U.S. Plastics Pact said APR's updated position aligns with its list of problematic and unnecessary materials.