As America loads up on an estimated 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween, a handful of companies are trying to make it easier to recycle all those wrappers. But they acknowledge their efforts are only making a small dent.
Halloween treats have a tricky problem: plastic packaging that’s difficult to recycle.
“What I’d like to see is this program actually goes away over time and we have a solution where it’s no longer required and we’re fully recyclable,” said Tim LeBel, president of sales for Mars Wrigley U.S. But plastic wrappers are a challenge for recycling companies. They often contain a mix of materials, like foil, which must be separated. They’re small and flimsy, making it easy for them to bypass typical sorting equipment. They have to be cleaned to remove grease, oil and other food waste. They’re multi-colored, so when they’re mixed together they come out as an unappealing brown.
That’s why it’s critical to have food companies or individual consumers funding recycling efforts, said Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle. “The onus cannot be on the customer to fix the massive plastic waste problem,” she said. “The solution is system change.”
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