Dive Brief:
- Kroger, a grocery store chain with over 2,600 stores across 34 states, announced that its recycling of plastic bags grew by 10% last year.
- According to the corporation's sustainability report, 35 million pounds of plastic bags were recycled at its stores and distribution centers.
- The stores collect the discarded plastic bags from consumers at "Bag2Bag" stations.
Dive Insight:
Companies and organizations are working to convert plastic bags into new products and alternative fuel. Kroger uses the bags to create new bags, landscape materials and plastic composite lumber.
In June, Dow Chemical Co. partnered with the Flexible Packaging Association and Republic Services in an experimental project in California in which participants collected "difficult-to-recycle" plastic waste into a separate bag. The trash in the bags was then converted into a synthetic fuel oil through a process called pyrolysis.