(MESA). Last year, the company securely destroyed and recycled over 6 million ib of post-industrial materials for the home entertainment industry, resulting in a savings of over 22,000 cubic yards of landfill space, 35,000 barrels of oil, and 2300 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The company established the program for recycling media about two years ago, explains Barry McRoberts, president of Global Polymers. “Studios have unique requirements for a recycling service provider and Global Polymers has a longer track record and more established process than any other service provider in this market segment. We have taken a leadership role in delivering closed-loop recycling solutions for home entertainment, automotive, and consumer products and we are eager to introduce all content holders to the benefits of our systems and solutions for recycling their packaging and media materials.”

McRoberts says that Global Polymers takes in product from media manufacturers nationwide, and offers its clients program management for the logistics. The company recycles all of the products in the media including the paper, the BOPP film, separates the PP, PS, and PC, and separates the plastics from the metalizing on CDs and DVDs. The polymer materials are then sent to a toll grinder where the materials are reprocessed.    

As a member of MESA, Global Polymers will participate in all programs related to establishing best practices for secure, sustainable recycling programs for the home video, video game, and music industries. With 17 years of experience in plastics, Global Polymers has the depth of market knowledge, technical expertise and logistic capability to not only securely destroy these sensitive materials, but to also find the most environmentally sustainable solutions for the material. Global Polymers also serves a variety of other industries in recycling plastic products.
 
Global Polymers also sends the repelletized, recycled PP from the jewel cases, and sends it to a local injection molder who molds new “green” cases so Global Polymers’ customers can buy back this “green” packaging. “We’re working on the same program with the PC and PS as well,” says McRoberts. “We’re really closing the loop to reduce the emissions, the amount of raw materials used, and create an environmentally friendly product in return.”

McRoberts says he will be working with MESA to “develop standards for the secure recycling of media, and to develop processes for recycling these products in a manner that’s within their rules and regulations. There are a lot of security issues surrounding this that we are helping to address,” he adds. —Clare Goldsberry