In less than three years, Direct Pack has purchased 50 million lbs. of recycled PET bales from different Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in the US. These bales consist of post-consumer recycled #1 PET bottles as well as thermoformed packaging, and we take the bales to Direct Pack Recycling, our own reclaiming and recycling facility. There we turn the recycled materials into “new” raw material again in a full circle process.

We are very grateful for the mutually beneficial collaboration with our MRF partners in California, Arizona, Washington, Nevada and Texas. As the MRFs collect more and more thermoformed #1 PET packaging from their local communities, we can include more of that material in our manufacturing of new packaging containers. Thereby we create a true, fully circular business model, where PET is an infinite resource that is recycled and reused again and again.

One of our biggest partners, Athens Services, has featured our collaboration in an article on their website, where they also promote #1 PET containers due to their high recyclability. Athens Services have multiple facilities close to our manufacturing plant in Sun Valley, California. Here is what they say:

“In June 2020, Athens Services partnered with Direct Pack, a local plastics manufacturer in Sun Valley, California, committed to “full circle recycling” to reclaim and recover #1 PET plastic clamshells and beverage bottles.

Here’s how the process works:

  1. Athens collects acceptable plastic products from curbside containers and businesses.
  2. The collected material is taken to Athens’ Sun Valley Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), where they are sorted and bundled into bales based on plastic type.
  3. Direct Pack picks up the #1 PET plastic bales and takes them to its recycling facility for reprocessing.
  4. Direct Pack washes and breaks down the post-consumer plastic into flakes, which can then be molded to create new recycled PET plastic containers.

“It’s been a great partnership. We are recovering materials instead of sending them to the landfill,” said Athens MRF Product Sales Manager Keng Baloco-Wong.”

You can read the entire article here.

These pictures show a Direct Pack truck picking up loads of recycled #1 PET from Athens Services’ location in Sun Valley.