Circularity story: How HydroBlox gives snack packages a new purpose
Tortilla chips. Frozen veggies. Protein bars. All of them—and so many more products—are packaged in multi-layer plastic. This type of packaging is almost impossible to avoid and has historically been equally as impossible to recycle. Billions of pounds are produced every year and almost all of them end up in landfills.
Why is it so difficult to recycle multi-layer plastic? The layers! This type of packaging is made up of as many as 12 distinct layers of different materials: one to keep in oxygen, one to block out sunlight, and on and on. Each of them have different characteristics including their melting points, key to recycling.
There’s no equipment that can separate the layers, so traditional recycling methods that typically handle one material aren’t useful in this case. Before we could help people keep multi-layer plastic out of landfills, we needed to find an innovative partner.
That’s where HydroBlox comes in! They use multi-layer plastic and other landfill-bound plastic to manufacture commercial and industrial drainage solutions, planks that help control water flow.
When we heard about HydroBlox, we were excited to learn more. Our partners need to be a good match for the volume of materials we collect and our materials need to be a good match for what they do. When we visited HydroBlox, we were more than satisfied that they would be able to responsibly use our members’ multi-layer plastic.
After two trial pickups of this problematic material, we introduced multi-layer plastic as a core Ridwell category in June of 2023. In the first six months of collection, our members filled more than 400,000 bags to be turned into something new.
Here’s what happens to the multi-layer plastic we collect and send to HydroBlox.
After the pickup
Once their day visiting members’ doorsteps is done, Ridwell drivers arrive back at our local warehouse to unload the items they retrieved.
At this point, an important part of the work has already been done: sorting multi-layer plastic from other materials. The Ridwell community collects it in its own bag, separate from plastic film and other types of material.
Sorting is how we avoid contamination, meaning anything that makes the material unable to be recycled. More than 92% of the multi-layer plastic we pick up gets a second life!
In the warehouse, our team does another round of sorting, then combines multi-layer plastic into big batches. These batches are put through a baling machine, which compresses them into tightly packed bales to maximize space in the truck that transports them to HydroBlox.
And they’re off!
A visit to HydroBlox
HydroBlox was founded by Ed Grieser in 2008, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were named one of the top mechanical recycling companies in the world by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce thanks to their innovative use of landfill-bound plastics.
Multi-layer plastic isn’t the only resource they use to create their lightweight products that catch and control water. They can work with any plastic except for PVC pipe because of its chlorine content and they even accept kayaks from a Pittsburgh-area rental company.
HydroBlox founder Ed with bales of Ridwell multi-layer plastic
When Ridwell members’ multi-layer plastic arrives at the HydroBlox facility, the bales are fed into a machine that shreds it with giant blades. Once it becomes tiny bits, it goes through other machinery to eventually become HydroBlox planks.
The entire process requires zero glue or binders. The product—planks that allow water to move through very quickly, keeping it where you want it—has drainage capacity and stability that’s greater than stone or pipe.
Gerrine with HydroBlox planks!
It’s used as a permanent drainage solution in both backyard-scale and large industrial and commercial projects. The planks have been installed underneath roads and highways around the world, integrated into public stormwater systems, and used to stop flooding in private homes.
The full circle
Before now, it may have been difficult to imagine your potato chip bag getting a second life preventing flooding! The journey from your front door to a recycling facility to a stormwater solution is certainly not a predictable one.
Innovations bring recycling forward. Creators like HydroBlox have opened up new ways to keep heaps and heaps of problematic waste out of landfills.
The EPA reports that nearly 20% of landfilled waste (27 million tons) is plastic. While some of that volume comes from other types of plastic, multi-layer plastic is so prevalent and so rarely recycled that diverting it from landfills will make a significant difference.
We’re proud to help people recycle multi-layer plastic from their doorsteps. Plus, HydroBlox planks will be sold at Home Depot starting in late winter 2024, making them more accessible for all homeowners to use. We’ll update with a link here once they’re available!
Interested in recycling multi-layer plastic?
