HCPA offers Webinar Series Sessions
Mid-Year Meeting goes online and Aerosol Products Division talks recycling…
Due to health and safety concern over the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Household & Commercial Products Association
(HCPA) Mid-Year Meeting, scheduled for April in
Washington, DC, transformed into Webinar Series Sessions hosted
throughout April, May and June. The webinars included Division
Programs; Federal, State and Regulatory Advisory Councils and
Special Sessions.
The Aerosol Product
Division webinar
was titled Recycling of
Aerosol Products and
was presented by Scott
Mouw, Senior Director of Strategy & Research at The Recycling
Partnership and David Wagger, PhD, Chief Scientist/Director of
Environmental Management at the Institute of Scrap Recycling
Industries, Inc. (ISRI).
A view from within
Wagger presented A View from the Recycling Industry, noting that
there are 130,000,000+ metric tons of recycling processed annually
in the U.S. (72.4 million metric
tons of iron/steel and 5.5 million tons of
aluminum were collected in 2018). This
represents $110 billion in economic activity
and $12.9 billion in federal, state and
local tax revenue.
Recycling is a commodities business
driven by demand, said Wagger. It doesn’t
matter how much scrap is collected and
processed; if there is no market on the
other end to utilize the material, the
recyclables will not move…and recycling
has not occurred. Manufacturers will
only purchase the scrap if it meets quality
requirements.
While industrial recycling and municipal recycling are distinct,
they are connected by materials and markets, including potentially
used aerosol products. Acceptance policies for used aerosol products
vary, and differing examples from industrial recyclers include
“Empty and punctured or crushed,” “Aerosol cans must be empty
and crushed” and “Aerosol cans must be empty and crushed or
punctured. Plastic caps must be removed.”
Examples from municipal recycling include “metal aerosol cans
from non-hazardous products such as whipped topping, spray
cooking oil, deodorant, hair spray, shaving cream,” “We cannot
accept for recycling aerosol or other cans that have held automotive
or hazardous products,” “If the cans are completely empty, place
them into your regular household trash” and “If the cans have
remaining hazardous products in them, bring them to our Household
Hazardous Waste drop-off.”
Recycling challenges for used aerosol products include materials
of construction, overall composition, retention of contents and
pressure, recycling and downstream processes and regulations.
Design of aerosol products can address recycling challenges and
improve recyclability of aerosol product containers. These design
considerations may include the lowering of product and propellant
to the "empty" thresholds (or lower) set by the Resource Conservation
& Recovery Act (RCRA); non-hazardouspropellants; use of
recyclable materials with known recycling infrastructure; use of
materials with recycled content and less use
of differing materials.
Material considerations may include
composition, recyclability, recycled content,
markets for recycled material, value and
available recycling exemptions.
Systems in place
Mouw presented The Recycling System, noting
that if all of the 37.4 million tons of annual
single-family recyclables were put back into
productive use instead of lost to disposal, it
would generate 370,000 full-time equivalent
jobs, reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
by 96 million metric tons of carbon dioxide
equivalent, conserve an annual energy equivalent of 154 million
barrels of oil and achieve the equivalent of taking more than 20
million cars off U.S. highways.
A single-family home generates 768 lbs of all recyclables per
year (3% steel cans and 2.7% aluminum cans). The number of
households participating in curbside recycling service is estimated
at 50.3 million, which is 72% of the number of U.S. households
with access to curbside recycling (69.8 million). Only 52% of U.S.
single-family households participate in curbside service.
In the U.S., generation of steel aerosol cans amounts to 185,520
tons; aluminum aerosol cans amount to 39,267 tons. There is a
general need to increase recovery and acceptance in local programs,
to increase consumer awareness of recycling and for market acceptance
of aluminum aerosols.
A survey conducted in January 2020 by The Recycling Partnership
asked 1,400 survey respondents in the U.S. how they believed
aerosol cans should be recycled. Results noted:
• In Recycling Bin 35%
• At Drop-off Center 28%
• Should not be recycled 34%
• Prefer not to answer 3%
According to Mouw, there needs to be more investment in
recycling infrastructure and education, with dedicated funding
to improve the resilience of collection, sorting and separation of
recyclable materials as well as funding for education to improve
material quality. Local governments throughout the country need
support in order to maintain recycling operations and prevent the
loss of valuable material to disposal.
There also needs to be investment in better data, as strong data
is the foundation of all smart solutions, he said. Investing in data
collection allows recycling stakeholders to make targeted, informed
investments in the communities that need it the most.
Consumers support sustainability, indicated Mouw, as 83% of
U.S. residents view recycling as an essential public service, according
to a 2019 The Recycling Partnership survey. In addition:
•84% expect products and packages to be easy to recycle and
made with recycled content
•80% expect that in 10 years, every product should be 100%
sustainable
•79% are more conscious of supporting Green/sustainable
companies than they were five years ago. Spray
20 Spray August 2020
Mouw
Wagger