In an ideal world, flexible films would be recycled curbside, but right now, industry experts will tell you: we’re a ways away from that ideal world. Why? And what would it take to get there?
At SPC Impact 2025, advisors at one of How2Recycle’s sister projects Navigate Nina Goodrich and Susan Robinson took the stage to break down one of the most complex challenges in recovery today: curbside recycling of flexible films.
Let’s dive into what Nina and Susan had to say about the current landscape, the biggest roadblocks, and what actions our industry can take now to close this circularity loop.
Why can’t we recycle flexible films curbside right now?
While certain flexible film materials may qualify for How2Recycle Store Drop-off labels, they’re currently not curbside recyclable in the U.S.
Still, flexible films are used in packaging from bread bags to beverage overwraps. The material accounts for approximately 20% of the U.S. packaging market compared with other materials like aluminum or paperboard. So, how could we reach a future where these materials are collected curbside for recycling?
In their research, Nina and Susan found that there are two main challenges blocking curbside recycling of flexible films: economics and contamination.
Economic roadblocks to curbside film collection
Nina shared two hard truths about the economics of flexible film recycling. First, it’s expensive to collect, sort, and process flexible film materials.
How expensive? Compared with virgin resins, which are both cheap and plentiful, recycled resin can cost 3x as much. In fact, their research found that residential curbside recycled films could cost $3,000 per ton.
To offset these high costs, films would need to be in high demand, which brings us to the second big economic barrier: the supply-demand scale for recycled films is out of balance. In the U.S. right now, there simply isn’t sufficient end market demand to cover the high costs of recycling flexible films curbside.
What makes these materials so expensive to recycle? Infrastructure — whether MRFs have the capacity to sort out films — is one piece of the puzzle, but the second biggest barrier to curbside recycling for flexible films is contamination.
How does contamination affect the recycling of flexible films?
During Nina and Susan’s presentation at SPC Impact 2025, we learned that after several pilots to test the sortation of films at WM MRFs, the company found that the materials required a secondary sorting before they could become feedstock for chemical recycling.
Why? In part, because of contamination.
From a technical standpoint, inks, coatings, and additives are among the many contaminants that limit recyclability for these materials. Plus, the lightweight nature of these materials means they can attract dirt, moisture, and paper — all of which make it difficult to produce a bale that would sell in end markets.
Then the cost comes back into play. Even as MRFs improve their sorting capabilities, the lack of strong demand for recycled films means they’re more likely to use that capacity to remove potentially contaminated films and keep their paper streams cleaner. This mix of infrastructure and contamination challenges has kept flexible film recycling mostly limited to chemical recycling, which Susan noted can be seen as costly, controversial, and not yet reliably commercial.
What does this all mean? And where do we go from here?
Right now, Nina and Susan concluded, there isn’t a sufficient supply-and-demand relationship between curbside post-consumer resin and end market demand. MRFs are price takers, not price setters, and they must move materials regardless of market conditions due to space constraints.
So, what comes next?
No one organization can solve curbside film recycling overnight. But the speakers pointed to three clear steps that stakeholders can take now:
- Develop end markets by piloting new collection ideas and engaging recycling partners.
- Educate policymakers, working with partners to align on messaging and legislation that balances supply and demand economics, like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or PCR mandates.
- Develop economic solutions that mitigate the gap between virgin plastic resin and post-consumer resin.
Our industry has seen dozens of pilots exploring how to separate flexible films at MRFs. Some, like WM’s, are continuing beyond the pilot phase to further refine their approach. But without strong end markets and policy alignment, curbside recycling for flexible films will remain financially and operationally out of reach.
Until then, targeted collection, clear labels, and harmonized design remain the most promising paths forward. To help close the loop on circularity for these materials, get involved through GreenBlue’s network of collaborative projects.