April 3, 2020

Dear Valued Customer,

As a follow-up to the letter we posted to our website on March 17, 2020, 51��ɫ is an essential business and remains fully operational.  All six of our national operations remain open and running extra hours to keep up with demand for food packaging supply. We continue to be committed to our customers and keeping you supplied based on your packaging needs, as well as, keeping our employees safe and healthy.

We are continually reviewing our plant operations and supply chain for potential impact of COVID-19.  We have reinforced adherence to our current GFSI Certified processes and procedures, educated our employees, monitoring our supply chain, developed a response plan and are doing everything we can to prevent spread of the virus, including the following:

• Daily auditing of our GFSI based Good Manufacturing Practices programs that require employees wash and sanitize their hands frequently.
• Reminding employees to stay home if they feel ill or have a fever.
• An Increased frequency of machine and plant cleaning using approved antiviral sanitizers
• Monitoring the situation in the area where our plants are located.
• Daily internal communications with all employees
• Elimination of international travel and a reduction in domestic travel and meetings.
• Screening and limiting plant access to vendors and contractors.
• Communicating with and monitoring our supply chain for issues.
• Developing contingency plans for potential infection at our locations
• Reviewing redundant manufacturing capabilities spread across six plants in the US.
• An updated Business Continuity Plan in place
• Social distancing of six feet

Our sales and customer service team are actively working and ready to support you.  We have seen a variation in demand and are doing everything to maintain or increase production of our facilities to ensure our customers get the same quality and service levels as expected.  We remain committed to servicing our customers and keeping our employees safe.  Thank you for your continued support and business.

COVID-19 Customer Letter

March 2020

We are pleased to announce that 51��ɫ, LLC has acquired Douglas Stephen Plastics (“DSP”)
effective as of March 4, 2020. The combination of the DSP and 51��ɫ businesses will
strengthen our ability to serve our valued customers with a broad line of complementary
products and a wide spectrum of technical and manufacturing capabilities across a national
footprint. Our focus on stock and customization of products, new product development and
sustainability, such as, post-consumer recycled materials is a key differentiator in the
marketplace.

51��ɫ is committed to provide products that meet your quality and service expectations.
Please continue to work through your existing sales and customer service contact and conduct
business as normal practice. We will provide regular updates as we transition the businesses
throughout this year.

Douglas Graff states “I’m excited about DSP joining forces with 51��ɫ who has an excellent
reputation in the packaging industry. I will continue to be involved and committed with the
51��ɫ leadership team to delivering the quality products and service levels you are
accustomed to receiving.”

We look forward to continuing to supply your packaging needs and value your relationship and
business.

January 2020

READING, PA—51��ɫ, an industry leader in high-performing thermoformed plastic packaging for a variety of industries and applications, announces a new product search feature on its website. 51��ɫ refreshed and relaunched its website in 2019 and has since added new functions for the ability to effortlessly search and purchase products online through the eCommerce store.

The new product search page includes custom code that allows users to enter keywords and select filters to narrow down products using the following criteria:

• Product Application: Bakery, Deli, Meat Trays, and more
• Product Type: Bowl, Clamshell, Tray, Lid, and more
• Compartments: 1 through 12
• Special Features: tamper-evident, film seal, ultra sonic tear strip, and more
• Dimensions: Length x Width x Height
• Volume: Fluid ounces

51��ɫ has made it easy to find the right container for any sort of application or use. In addition to these new search features, products can be purchased directly on the website. With over 350 shapes and sizes in stock—from simple deli containers to complex trays with multiple compartments—you can be sure 51��ɫ covers your packaging needs.

In 2018, 51��ɫ joined forces with three other successful plastic thermoforming companies: TrayPak of Reading, PA, Nuconic Packaging of Vernon, CA and James L. Villa Inc. of Oldsmar, FL. The three companies now operate under the 51��ɫ name. Over sixty-seven years of combined experience and extensive knowledge in the packaging industry, 51��ɫ is a solutions provider for your packaging needs. The combination of these three innovative businesses strengthens our ability to serve our valued customers with a broad line of complementary products and a wide spectrum of technical and manufacturing capabilities across a national footprint.

April 2019

51��ɫ, LLC (“51��ɫ”) is pleased to announce the acquisition of James L. Villa, Inc. (“James L. Villa”). This expansion adds a Southeastern manufacturing facility to the 51��ɫ footprint, allowing the company to better serve existing and new customers nationwide.

Located in Oldsmar, Florida, James L. Villa is a third generation family-owned and operated business that specializes in highly innovative, custom thermoformed and injection molded packaging for food packaging products. The addition of James L. Villa enables 51��ɫ to strategically expand into the Southeast while providing additional customization capabilities and scale to the business. Dave Furstoss, CEO of 51��ɫ, states, “James L. Villa boasts an impressive roster of loyal, long-term customers in the grocery channel – we are excited to partner with the business to expand our thermoformed platform presence in the Southeast.”

By Jim Johnson, Plastics News – January 31, 2019

Recyclers have long touted the environmental benefits of using recovered plastics, pointing to both energy savings and lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with virgin resin use.

But an exact accounting of just how much brand owners and converters can promote those benefits has, for the most part, been lacking.

“We felt very strong that there are significant energy and emissions savings using recycled material in comparison to virgin, but we needed data to support that,” Association of Plastic Recyclers President Steve Alexander said.

Newly released research commissioned by APR shows total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are just a fraction of outputs for virgin resin production, the trade group said.

Total energy savings were 79 percent for PET and 88 percent for both high density polyethylene and polypropylene, APR reports. Emissions reductions were 67 percent for PET and 71 percent for both HDPE and PP.

Those reduction levels were calculated using the “cut-off” method of calculation. The report indicates “all virgin material production burdens are assigned to the first use of the material, and the burdens assigned to the recycled resin system begin with recovery of the post-consumer material” through this method.

The report, authored by Franklin Associates, a division of Eastern Research Group Inc., provides such information for the first time for HDPE and PP and updates past work done by the American Chemistry Council on PET.

“There’s never been one as comprehensive as this. And there has never been one for HDPE and for polypropylene,” explained Alexander said. “It’s one of the most expensive projects that APR has ever undertaken.”

APR decided to take a deep dive into the issue about two years ago, devoting about a third of its program budget that year to the effort.

“It took us awhile. We wanted to have three-quarters of the volume in the marketplace [represented],” Alexander said. “We wanted it to be comprehensive and have some integrity and credibility.”

The project cost almost “six-figures,” Alexander said, and took extra time because there was a lot of back-and-forth communication between researchers and companies to gather the information that had never been requested before.

“It’s all part of trying to push the message that recycling and, particularly, recycling of plastics, we believe is the true sustainability metric for plastic packaging,” Alexander said.

Between the time APR commissioned the study and now, the issues of ocean plastics, single-use plastics and plastic litter has exploded. And that makes the information even more relevant, he said.

“Clearly, it’s more pressing and more important now than when we started this,” he said. “As the organization that represents the plastics recycling industry, we recognize we are in competition now,” he said, with other approaches such as take-back programs and product bans.

For that reason, Alexander said, it is important for the plastics recycling industry push this type of data into the marketplace.

Plastic recyclers and packaging makers can point to the data to help promote the use of recycled resin. “The story is to make sure that people understand the environmental and energy and emission benefits from using a recycled resin,” Alexander said. “The recycling rate, as you know, for certain products, hasn’t been really elevated in a couple of years. Markets have been tough. This is another tool that we have to improve the market posture for recycled resin.”

“It’s really a marketing tool for the recyclers to try and extend and expand demand for our material in the marketplace,” he said.

By Rick LeBlanc
Updated December 29, 2018
www.thebalancesmb.com

Plastic recycling refers to the process of recovering waste or scrap plastic and reprocessing the materials into functional and useful products. This activity is known as the plastic recycling process. The goal of recycling plastic is to reduce high rates of plastic pollution while putting less pressure on virgin materials to produce brand new plastic products. This approach helps to conserve resources and diverts plastics from landfills or unintended destinations such as oceans.

The Need for Recycling Plastic

Plastics are durable, lightweight and inexpensive materials. They can readily be molded into various products which find uses in a plethora of applications. Every year, more than 100 million tons of plastics are manufactured across the globe. Around 200 billion pounds of new plastic material is thermoformed, foamed, laminated and extruded into millions of packages and products. Consequently, the reuse, recovery and the recycling of plastics are extremely important.

What Plastics Are Recyclable?

There are six common types of plastics. Following are some typical products you will find for each of plastic:

PS (Polystyrene) – Example: foam hot drink cups, plastic cutlery, containers, and yogurt.

PP (Polypropylene) – Example: lunch boxes, take-out food containers, ice cream containers.

LDPE (Low-density polyethylene) – Example: garbage bins and bags.

PVC (Plasticised Polyvinyl chloride or polyvinyl chloride)—Example: cordial, juice or squeeze bottles.

HDPE (High-density polyethylene) – Example: shampoo containers or milk bottles.

PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) – Example: fruit juice and soft drink bottles.

Currently, only PET, HDPE, and PVC plastic products are recycled under curbside recycling programs. PS, PP, and LDPE typically are not recycled because these plastic materials get stuck in the sorting equipment in recycling facilities causing it to break or stop. Lids and bottle tops cannot be recycled as well. “To recycle or Not to Recycle” is a big question when it comes to plastic recycling. Some plastic types are not recycled because they are not economically feasible to do so.

Some Quick Plastic Recycling Facts

• Every hour, Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles, most of which are thrown away.
• About 9.1% of plastic production was recycled in the U.S. during 2015, varying by product category. Plastic packaging was recycled at 14.6%, plastic durable goods at 6.6%, and other non-durable goods at 2.2%.
• Currently, 25 percent of plastic waste is recycled in Europe.
• Americans recycled 3.14 million tons of plastics in 2015, down from 3.17 million in 2014.
• Recycling plastic takes 88% less energy than producing plastics from new raw materials.
• Currently, around 50% of plastics we use are thrown away just after a single use.
• Plastics account for 10% of total global waste generation.
• Plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade
• The plastics that end up in the oceans break down into small pieces and every year around 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds get killed eating those small pieces of plastics.
• The energy saved from recycling just a single plastic bottle can power a 100 watt light bulb for nearly an hour.

The Plastic Recycling Process

The simplest of plastic recycling processes involves collecting, sorting, shredding, washing, melting, and pelletizing. The actual particular processes vary based on plastic resin or type of plastic product.

Most plastic recycling facilities use the following two-step process:

Step One: Sorting plastics automatically or with a manual sort to make sure all the contaminants are removed from the plastic waste stream.

Step Two: Melting down plastics directly into a new shape or shredding into flakes then melting down before being finally processed into granulates.

The Latest Advances in Plastic Recycling

Ongoing innovations in recycling technologies have made the plastic recycling process easier and more cost-effective. Such technologies include reliable detectors and sophisticated decision and recognition software that collectively enhance the productivity and accuracy of automatic sorting of plastics. For an example, FT-NIR detectors can run for up to 8,000 hours between faults in the detectors.

Another notable innovation in plastic recycling has been in finding higher value applications for recycled polymers in closed-loop recycling processes. Since 2005, for example, PET sheets for thermoforming in the UK can contain 50 percent to 70 percent recycled PET through the use of A/B/A layer sheets.

Recently, some EU countries including Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, and Austria have begun collecting rigid packaging such as pots, tubs, and trays as well as a limited amount of post-consumer flexible packaging. Due to recent improvements in washing and sorting technologies, the recycling of non-bottle plastic packaging has become feasible.

Challenges for the Plastic Recycling Industry

Plastic recycling faces many challenges, ranging from mixed plastics to hard-to-remove residues. The cost-effective and efficient recycling of the mixed plastic stream is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the recycling industry. Experts believe that designing plastic packaging and other plastic products with recycling in mind can play a significant role in facing this challenge.

The recovery and recycling of post-consumer flexible packaging is a problem. Most material recovery facilities and local authorities do not actively collect it due to a lack of equipment that can efficiently and easily separate them.

Oceanic plastic pollution has become a recent flashpoint for public concern. Ocean plastic is expected to triple in the next decade, and public concern has prompted leading organizations around the world to take action towards better plastic resource management and pollution prevention.

Plastic Recycling Laws

The recycling of plastic bottles has been made mandatory in several U.S. states including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Please follow the respective links to find the detailed of plastic recycling laws in each state.

Looking Ahead

Recycling is critical to effective end-of-life plastic management. Increasing recycling rates have resulted from greater public awareness and the increased effectiveness of recycling operations. Operational efficiency will be supported by ongoing investment in research and development.

Recycling of a greater range of post-consumer plastic products and packaging will further boost recycling and divert more end-of-life plastic wastes from landfills. Industry and policymakers can also help stimulate recycling activity by requiring or incentivizing the use of recycled resin versus virgin plastics.

Plastic Recycling Industry Associations

Plastic recycling industry associations are the bodies responsible for promoting plastic recycling, enabling members to build and maintain relationships among plastic recyclers, and lobbying with government and other organizations to help create the best possible environment for the plastic recycling industry.

The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR): APR represents the international plastic recycling industry. It represents its members which include plastic recycling companies of all sizes, consumer plastic product companies, plastic recycling equipment manufacturers, testing laboratories and organizations that are committed to the advancement and success of plastic recycling. APR has multiple education programs to update its members about the latest plastic recycling technologies and developments.

Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE): Established in 1996, PRE represents plastic recyclers in Europe. Currently, it has more than 115 members from all over Europe. In the first year of establishment, PRE members recycled just 200 000 tons of plastic waste, however now the current total exceeds 2.5 million tons. PRE arranges plastic recycling shows and annual meetings to enable its members to discuss the latest developments and challenges in the industry.

Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI): ISRI represents over 1600 small to large multinational companies include manufacturers, processors, brokers and industrial consumers of many different types of scrap commodities. The associate members of this Washington DC-based association include equipment and key service providers to the scrap recycling industry.