The National Waste & Recycling Association’s (NWRA) 2023 Sustainability Game Changer Award goes to Republic Services’ Polymer Center! The Polymer Center in Las Vegas is the first in a national network under development to enable greater circularity for rigid plastics and support sustainable packaging, helping customers achieve their sustainability goals.
“Through the Polymer Center, we’re transforming the plastics value chain, from curbside collection to consumer packaging and back again,” said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability. “Our goal is to enable true bottle-to-bottle circularity and help consumer packaged goods companies meet their recycled content goals. We’re grateful to NWRA for recognizing the Polymer Center as 2023’s Sustainability Game Changer.”
Republic Services’ Polymer Center processes sorted and baled plastics from recycling facilities, further separating plastics by type and color to produce hot-washed recycled PET flake and color-sorted olefins. Republic also launched the Blue Polymers joint venture to further process olefins from Polymer Centers and create custom drop-in solutions for packaging manufacturers.
Republic’s second Polymer Center is under development in Indianapolis, where it will be co-located with a Blue Polymers facility. Construction is expected to be completed later this year. Additional sites are planned to create a regional hub-and-spoke network for nationwide coverage.
