After conducting research in Europe, SC Johnson has successfully transformed flexible film like grocery store and Ziploc brand bags from residential curbside bins into full-size garbage bags. Currently, commercial store recycling programs for Ziploc brand bags only amount to about 0.2 percent of Ziploc brand bags sold being recycled, and this effort could help increase recycling numbers.
“For decades we have worked to lighten our environmental footprint,” said SC Johnson Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson in a statement. “It’s who we are. It’s how we operate. And, recycling Ziploc bags is just one more example.”
SC Johnson is currently testing the European process of rinsing soiled plastic film, preparing it for reuse and recycling and converting it into pellets that can be melted down and turned into garbage bags. The company is also looking into other uses for the material, such as pellets and construction beams.
The company plans on selling limited qualities of the garbage bags on its Green Choices website by the end of the year, but it has no plans to mass produce or sell garbage bags made from recycled Ziploc bags.