Berry Global has joined the Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, which is aimed at increasing recycling access for polypropylene. This announcement extends Berry’s goal of enhancing recycling infrastructure as part of the quest toward a circular economy. Berry Global is an US-based packaging and engineering products company.

As a cross-industry effort, Berry joins steering committee members Keurig Dr Pepper, Braskem, NextGen Consortium, and the Walmart Foundation, along with other members of the polypropylene value chain. The coalition has contributed $4.2 million in grants to 13 recycling facilities to positively impact nearly 15 million US residents, almost 6 per cent of the US population. It has given financial awards across the US to increase polypropylene recovery by 13 million pounds annually.

The coalition has also supported targeted consumer education efforts and infrastructure improvements, Berry said in a media statement.

The initiative is in line with Berry’s efforts to improve polypropylene curb-side recycling. Berry is strategically targeting both investments and partnerships to foster recycling infrastructure. An example of this is a recent collaboration with Evansville, Indiana, materials recovery facility (MRF) to purchase and install a new AMP Robotics Cortex high-speed robotics system to sort polypropylene. Recovered material will be used back in Berry’s products, but more importantly, learnings from the robot will be evaluated and shared to enhance and promote polypropylene recycling.

“By expanding and modernising recycling infrastructure, we will capture the economic value that is currently being lost and supply the recycled content necessary to meet commitments. This is critical to achieving a circular economy and giving natural resources multiple lives,” Robert Flores, vice president of sustainability at Berry said in a statement.