Kara Stoney is the Value Chain and Sustainability Marketing Manager for Dow Chemical.
Kara described Dow's pilot program with Meijer using discarded plastic shopping bags to produce post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic that can be used in a variety of applications--including on parking lots and roads. Plastic bags deposited in collection bins near front entrances of Meijer stores were taken to Dow recycling faciilities to create recycled polymer modified asphalt (RPMA) to create a more durable parking lot for Meijer's Holland, MI supercenter.
The RPMA parking lot used around 12,500 pounds of PCR, the equivalent weight of 944,000 plastic grocery bags. This not only resulted in a parking lot with increased durability, it also was an example of a circular economy.
Meijer has produced a Recycling List of plastic film items that can be deposited in Meijer recycling bins. Rotarians are urged to print off a copy to post for their own use.