The global plastic waste crisis is escalating, demanding more advanced and integrated recycling solutions. At the recent AMI Plastics World Expo in Cleveland, industry expert Enrico Siewert outlined how innovative approaches can address these challenges and create sustainable pathways. Siewert, a 25-year veteran of the plastic recycling industry and a key figure at Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, emphasized the need for a shift in the industry’s approach to waste management.
Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, based in Norwalk, CT, specializes in designing and integrating advanced recycling systems for single-stream and mixed-waste management. “I am focusing on some of the shifts in the industry that we’re seeing from our sector,” Siewert said. The company, with over 40 years of experience, partners with European equipment manufacturers to provide turnkey systems for recycling and waste management.
Siewert highlighted the global nature of the plastic waste problem, referencing the 2018 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “This is not just a North American or US problem — it’s a global problem,” he said. Customers are increasingly asking, “How do we help solve this plastic problem? What do we do?”
The traditional approach to recycling has focused on sorting mixed household waste into bales of materials like cardboard, paper, aluminum, plastic, and glass. However, Siewert explained that the industry is now being asked to take on more responsibility. “Our industry is asking us to do more than just make a bale,” he said. “They’re asking us to be fully responsible from the beginning — when the waste is collected at the curb or at businesses — all the way to creating a usable product that can be converted back into something consumers buy on the shelf.”
To meet these demands, Van Dyk is focusing on vertically integrated solutions that add value to recycled materials. This involves taking materials from bales and processing them further through additional sorting, size reduction, washing, and pelletization. “We’re taking all these different ingredients that have been mixed together at the household or industry level and converting them back into a usable feedstock that ultimately competes with virgin plastic,” Siewert explained.
This approach is particularly important in today’s challenging market. Siewert highlighted the impact of depressed global commodity prices, tariffs, and competition from inexpensive virgin plastics, particularly from Asia. “It’s a difficult financial environment,” he said. “Recycling is under pressure from commodity pricing, and we need to find ways to add value to our customers’ bottom line.”
Siewert suggested that reducing cost and increasing efficiency is one way to achieve this. “If you’re making a plastic product from a bale, you can go up the value chain by further processing it into a regrind or pellet form,” he said. “This allows us to cut costs and compete with virgin commodities.”
While technology and supply are critical components of the recycling process, Siewert stressed that the real challenge lies in creating consistent demand for recycled materials. “There’s abundant supply and technology to recover materials, but the end markets have to be consistent,” he said.
He pointed out that recycled content materials often face challenges in competing with virgin plastics, which are less expensive and more consistent in quality. “Recycled content materials are not perfect, and they’re competing against perfect,” Siewert said. “How do we create demand for products that can sustain these up-and-down markets and justify the capital investments needed for large-scale facilities?”
Siewert believes the solution lies in creating contractual demand for products that use recycled content. “If post-consumer recycled (PCR) content is something you require in your product, it has to have its own brand equity and pricing structure,” he said. “We need to decouple ourselves from the price of virgin materials.”
Siewert concluded his presentation with a call to action for the industry to work together to create a sustainable future. “There’s a lot of plastic floating in the ocean, and only 10% of plastic is being recovered from what we consume,” he said. “That means we have a 70% to 90% opportunity to do better.”
He emphasized that the technology to sort, wash, and extrude recycled materials is already available. What’s missing is a commitment from end markets to create consistent demand for recycled content. “Once we create that recovery, it allows the material we consume at the household level to be put in the bin and ultimately turned into something valuable,” Siewert said.
As the recycling industry faces mounting challenges, companies like Van Dyk Recycling Solutions are stepping up to provide innovative solutions. By focusing on vertical integration, creating value beyond the bale, and driving demand for recycled materials, they are paving the way for a more sustainable future. This news underscores the urgent need for collaboration and innovation in the recycling sector, challenging stakeholders to rethink traditional approaches and embrace more integrated, value