Beats | March 1, 2017

Recycling more plastics could generate up to $120 billion in revenues

ImpactAlpha
The team at

ImpactAlpha

Perhaps the famous career advice in “The Graduate” should have been two words: recycled plastics.

Only 14 percent of the plastic packaging in the modern economy is recycled. Recycling the other 86 percent could generate between $80 and $120 billion in annual revenues, say the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Tech companies seeking to capture these revenues include BioCellection, in San Jose, Calif., which turns plastic bags into textiles. Spanish startup Cadel Deinking removes troublesome ink printed on plastic packaging. Saperatec, a German company, separates mixed-material packaging for recycling.

Photo credit: Alba Group