Hi folks, it's been a while since you heard from me, and I wanted to provide an update on Obaggo's pilot program for the recycling of plastic bags and film, the fastest-growing type of packaging material (and the least recycled). Since we have a number of new subscribers, I want to spend a little time bringing everyone up to speed by telling our story.
As you know, in the United States, about 99% of the plastic bags and packaging film that arrive in the household are landfilled, incinerated, or end up in the environment. Bags and film that people recycle at retail store drop-off bins generally go to just a few companies, such as Trex, a manufacturer of composite wood decking and building products. However, the retail store system struggles to handle this 1% of the bag and film waste stream that it currently does, with inadequate bin facilities, stores sometimes discarding the bags, and other stores ending their collection programs altogether. This voluntary system has been in place for decades, and it hasn't increased recycling rates over time. A different approach to solving this recycling problem is clearly (and desperately) needed.
Obaggo was founded back in 2017 with the goal of creating a new, more convenient, and more economical way of recycling plastic bags and packaging film. The basic concept was, if the consumer densified their bags and film into compact objects, these objects could be collected, stored, sorted, and reprocessed in a much more economical (read: profitable) way. And perhaps this would lead to a revolutionary change in the recovery and recycling of this plastic material. This was all just theory; we had to actually make it happen to see if it would work.
Obaggo crowdfunded the project on Indiegogo, and raised over $175,000 from folks like yourselves who care about this problem as much as we do. We began shipping our kitchen appliances in August of 2023, shipping to almost all 50 states, and 7 different countries. We now sell them exclusively from our ecommerce website. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
After the initial challenge of bringing the Obaggo appliance to market was solved, we turned our attention to the downstream problem of collecting and recycling the material. Our ultimate goal is still to gain acceptance of Obaggo disks in the curbside recycling systems around the country. However, the huge material recovery facilities (MRFs) where our recyclables are taken can't be bothered sorting out the small initial volumes of Obaggo disks. So we needed an interim solution to collect and recycle the disks until our volumes increase. The nation's largest plastic film recycler, Trex, agreed to accept Obaggo disks in their retail store take-back program, which added thousands of locations for Obaggo customers to take their disks. We estimate that to-date, Obaggo users have recycled well over 10,000 pounds of plastic bags and film. But all of this material went to Trex, and we needed some for our pilot testing.
In May of 2024, Obaggo partnered with Helpsy, an operator of clothing and shoe recycling bins in the Northeast, to collect Obaggo disks and bring them to their warehouse and store them for us, to be used in pilot-testing various aspects of the recycling process. For those of you recycling your disks at retail store drop-off bins, that is fine, and you should feel good knowing your plastic is being recycled. However, since Obaggo never sees that material, we prefer if you are near a Helpsy clothing and shoe bin, that you take your disks there (and bring your clothes and shoes at the same time). Since we announced this arrangement 9 months ago, we have collected around 600 pounds of disks (around 2400 disks).
Just this past weekend, we picked up the latest bin of material from Helpsy's warehouse facility in Woburn, Massachusetts. This box is deceivingly heavy, weighing somewhere around 600 pounds. I had a lot of help getting this back to Obaggo's headquarters.
Now that we have a sufficient quantity of material, we're going to be scheduling an array of tests at different facilities, including grinding and shredding tests, sorting tests at MRFs, reprocessing tests at plastic recyclers, and laboratory analyses of the final post-consumer recycled resin (PCR) that is produced. Finally, we will be identifying regional manufacturers that can use the PCR as raw material for their manufacturing processes.
Also recently, we visited the Plastics Engineering department at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell campus, where we discussed a potential collaboration in the Pilot Testing efforts.
To summarize, the Obaggo project is proceeding steadily forward, with the goal of creating an economical and sustainable solution to plastic bag and packaging film recycling. The pilot program is moving into the next phase of testing the recovered material in various settings to learn about the best ways to process and use the material.
For all Obaggo users out there, thanks so much for all of your recycling efforts. I really appreciate everything you have done, finding the Helpsy locations, shipping me disks via UPS, and dropping disks off at our Worldwide Headquarters here in Melrose!
For all of you Obaggo recyclers out there, I have a few requests. If there is a Helpsy Clothing & Shoe bin near you, please save up your disks and deposit them there, rather than the supermarket drop-off bins. This will ensure a steady supply of material for our testing and recycling. You can find the closest Helpsy bin at Find a Bin — Helpsy. Also, please remove all paper labels from the bags before placing in Obaggo. And lastly, try to ensure that you are only including recyclable plastic bags.
Thank you to everyone for your dedication and support of this project! We could not do this without you!
Best regards,
Dave New
Founder & CEO
Obaggo Recycling
I always remove the labels before creating disks -- I usually peel them off or cut them out while watching TV, and then have one pile of garbage and another pile of film to melt -- but I can easily imagine how that often doesn’t happen. How much does the inclusion of labels negatively impact the ability of disks to be recycled?
And a much greater concern to me seems to be the question of ensuring that only the correct bags are included in disks. My sense now is that, the closer the bag is to touching food, the less-likely it is to be recyclable. But there seems no way to really know at all! And if they're turning the…
Dave
I love the Obaggo! I've made a LOT of disks. Since I'm in S. Texas, where can I go or send them for recycling?
Debra