Happy Friday! Spring is just around the corner! I hope everyone has splendid plans for the weekend; if you live in Chicago, you should subscribe to groupon.com, which emails you coupons for the best deals in town everyday! I am cashing in on one of them tonight…
Anyway, let’s resume our clamshell recycling narrative:
Grateful for the educational tour guide’s detailed responses to my inquiries about recycling clamshells, I sent her the following email upon arrival to the office:
Hello,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply; I really appreciate it. I am going to investigate the websites you supplied in the email. In the mean time, please feel free to connect me with your plastic rep.
Thank you again for your feedback!
Best,
Chandler
After sending this into the plasma that is the internet, I began going through my inbox, eager to find anything that would continue to provide direction for this clamshell recycling initiative.
The first was from the Sales Director of the SPI, responding to my phone call follow up email:
Chandler,
Sorry to be late in my response. I am working on putting you in touch with the people who can better answer your questions. Unfortunately, between vacations and a benchmarking conference we are sponsoring this week, I am having difficulty getting in touch with those people.
However, we will be in touch with you shortly.
Thanks again for your interest in SPI.
Okay, sounds good. Next I found a response from the APR (Association of Post-consumer Recyclers) in regard to my inquiry about this organization:
Chandler,
Thank you for your interest in plastics recycling and the APR. I have attached a membership application for your review. Please take a look and let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to working with you.
Thanks!
I downloaded and opened the application.
Apparently, depending on your level of engagement with recycling/recycled plastics, different membership categories ensue:
Description of Membership Categories:
Dordan Mfg. has a closed loop system with its material supplier in which we grind our scrap post-industrial and sell it back to our suppliers to be formed into sheets for future conversion. Therefore, while we do engage in a process of recycling (collecting and grinding our post-industrial scrap), I don’t believe we can qualify for full membership because it specifies post-consumer, as opposed to post-industrial, recycling processes.
Hmmmm…I don’t know if this pertains to us exactly….And, there are annual membership fees…perhaps I can persuade my Superior to consider this?
…ten minutes later…
As in the case with joining NAPCOR, my boss doesn’t see the economic justification for joining the APR at this point in time: the economy is bizarre and he already brought me on as the Sustainability Coordinator; my role, he explained and continues to emphasize, is to understand sustainability from the role of a packaging professional in order to further the success of Dordan and implement logistical, economically viable initiatives: “Don’t let your passions get in the way,” he said to me. Again, another realization that this was not a school project but a profession that only exists as long as it is economically sustainable.
So, now that I have researched the various recycling trade groups but am unable to apply for membership, there has to be more things I can do to further this clamshell recycling initiative…
Luckily, I received an email from the educational tourguide at Recycle America, a division of Waste Management, following through with her offer to put me in touch with some people that may be able to help forward my clamshell recycling initiative:
Chandler,
You should be seeing two emails with you copied on them as an introductory.? One will be to our plastic rep and the other will be to one of our municipality reps.
The educational tourguide copied me on the following emails:
Hello,
Chandler Slavin is inquiring about the market challenges of clamshell containers among other things. As a Sustainable Coordinator for his company and a member of the IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals), she wants direction on how to go about researching best practice collections for the packaging his company creates. Could you spare a few minutes to answer some more specific marketing questions?
And:
Hello,
Chandler Slavin is inquiring about the recycling challenges of clamshell containers among other things. As a Sustainable Coordinator for her company and a member of the IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals), she wants direction on how to go about researching best practice collections for the packaging his company creates and asked if she should look into questioning the municipalities as a part of this research. Could you spare a few minutes to answer some more specific municipality questions?
Thanks!
Groooooooovy. Tune in on Monday to learn more about the intricacies of recycling and waste management in America.
Anyway, let’s resume our clamshell recycling narrative:
Grateful for the educational tour guide’s detailed responses to my inquiries about recycling clamshells, I sent her the following email upon arrival to the office:
Hello,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply; I really appreciate it. I am going to investigate the websites you supplied in the email. In the mean time, please feel free to connect me with your plastic rep.
Thank you again for your feedback!
Best,
Chandler
After sending this into the plasma that is the internet, I began going through my inbox, eager to find anything that would continue to provide direction for this clamshell recycling initiative.
The first was from the Sales Director of the SPI, responding to my phone call follow up email:
Chandler,
Sorry to be late in my response. I am working on putting you in touch with the people who can better answer your questions. Unfortunately, between vacations and a benchmarking conference we are sponsoring this week, I am having difficulty getting in touch with those people.
However, we will be in touch with you shortly.
Thanks again for your interest in SPI.
Okay, sounds good. Next I found a response from the APR (Association of Post-consumer Recyclers) in regard to my inquiry about this organization:
Chandler,
Thank you for your interest in plastics recycling and the APR. I have attached a membership application for your review. Please take a look and let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to working with you.
Thanks!
I downloaded and opened the application.
Apparently, depending on your level of engagement with recycling/recycled plastics, different membership categories ensue:
Description of Membership Categories:
- Full Membership—those companies actively engaged – in North America – in performing physical operations of any kind on post-consumer plastics as part of the process of recycling such plastics. (Please see brochure for detailed definition)
- Affiliate Membership—companies that do not qualify for Full Membership and that have a direct business stake in the recycling of post-consumer plastics, except brokers.
Dordan Mfg. has a closed loop system with its material supplier in which we grind our scrap post-industrial and sell it back to our suppliers to be formed into sheets for future conversion. Therefore, while we do engage in a process of recycling (collecting and grinding our post-industrial scrap), I don’t believe we can qualify for full membership because it specifies post-consumer, as opposed to post-industrial, recycling processes.
Hmmmm…I don’t know if this pertains to us exactly….And, there are annual membership fees…perhaps I can persuade my Superior to consider this?
…ten minutes later…
As in the case with joining NAPCOR, my boss doesn’t see the economic justification for joining the APR at this point in time: the economy is bizarre and he already brought me on as the Sustainability Coordinator; my role, he explained and continues to emphasize, is to understand sustainability from the role of a packaging professional in order to further the success of Dordan and implement logistical, economically viable initiatives: “Don’t let your passions get in the way,” he said to me. Again, another realization that this was not a school project but a profession that only exists as long as it is economically sustainable.
So, now that I have researched the various recycling trade groups but am unable to apply for membership, there has to be more things I can do to further this clamshell recycling initiative…
Luckily, I received an email from the educational tourguide at Recycle America, a division of Waste Management, following through with her offer to put me in touch with some people that may be able to help forward my clamshell recycling initiative:
Chandler,
You should be seeing two emails with you copied on them as an introductory.? One will be to our plastic rep and the other will be to one of our municipality reps.
The educational tourguide copied me on the following emails:
Hello,
Chandler Slavin is inquiring about the market challenges of clamshell containers among other things. As a Sustainable Coordinator for his company and a member of the IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals), she wants direction on how to go about researching best practice collections for the packaging his company creates. Could you spare a few minutes to answer some more specific marketing questions?
And:
Hello,
Chandler Slavin is inquiring about the recycling challenges of clamshell containers among other things. As a Sustainable Coordinator for her company and a member of the IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals), she wants direction on how to go about researching best practice collections for the packaging his company creates and asked if she should look into questioning the municipalities as a part of this research. Could you spare a few minutes to answer some more specific municipality questions?
Thanks!
Groooooooovy. Tune in on Monday to learn more about the intricacies of recycling and waste management in America.