The Progressive Bag Affiliates, a group of top plastic bag producers and recyclers and part of the American Chemistry Council, launched a major initiative to promote bag recycling throughout the nation.

Several of the country's biggest bag manufacturers will begin printing a clear message on their bags to encourage customers to recycle bags at participating stores.

The PBA also unveiled a new comprehensive at-store recycling toolkit designed to make it easy for stores to recycle plastic bags.

API Corporation, Hilex Poly Co. Inc., Inteplast and Superbag Corporation, bag manufacturers which together represent over 90 percent of the domestic plastic bag production, will all incorporate the new logo and message as a standard feature on their bags.

These companies will be offering the new logo for customers that participate in a bag recycling program. Consumers can expect to see the logo on bags throughout the country in the many areas where plastic bag recycling programs are available.

"The goal of the PBA is to gather the leaders of the plastic bag industry together with major recyclers to effect meaningful change in plastic bag recycling," said Steve Russell, managing director for American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division. "This unified awareness campaign, with a clear message printed on millions of bags across the nation, will be one of the most widely distributed environmental messages ever created."

Plastic bag recycling is a growing trend in communities around the nation. Coast to coast, from the state of California to New York City, more stores are providing bag recycling than ever before and the impact has been substantial.

An estimated 812,010,000 pounds of post-consumer film (including plastic bags) was recovered in 2006, representing a 24 percent increase from 652,477,000 pounds recovered in 2005. Bag manufacturers are helping to drive that trend by working in cooperation with community leaders, elected officials, retailers and environmental groups to illustrate the value of plastic bag recycling.

The new at-store recycling toolkit that has been developed by the ACC will also feature the new logo in a suite of tools that make it easier than ever for stores to begin plastic bag recycling. The toolkit offers bins and signage for store entrances and exits, checkout signage and pins to raise awareness, and municipal bins to be used at curbside.

Ordering information for the toolkit will be available at the Plastic Bag Recycling website.

4/25/2008