The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) made two organizational changes to reflect the current recycling industry.

ISRI created a new plastics division and made a change in its bylaws to allow members to join multiple commodity divisions, the Washington-based association said in a news release.

By creating a plastics division ISRI said it is providing a formal infrastructure that allows it to develop tools and materials for plastics recyclers. Plastics recyclers also will have three seats on ISRI’s board.

“The plastics recycling sector is one of the fastest growing segments of the recycling industry, presenting a great opportunity for the newly created Plastics Division to mitigate some of the barriers to recover plastics while offering visibility into the global supply chain,” said Jonathan Cohen, president of Generated Materials Recovery and chairman of ISRI’s Plastics Division. “There is strong industry-wide interest in seeing this area of recycling become more robust and accessible, and we expect the division to play a leading role in contributing to this development.”

The other change, allowing ISRI members to join multiple divisions, was made as more and more companies are handling multiple commodity streams and have a vested interest in the policy development, resources and programming of more than one division.

“Twenty years ago companies typically specialized in only one commodity, but today they are increasingly handling significant volumes across multiple commodity streams,” said Robin Wiener, ISRI president. “This change was needed to ensure members have a voice within ISRI for each and every commodity they produce.”