Obaggo Update - November 2025

Dear Obaggo Friends and Supporters,

I have to start off with an apology, it's been far too many months since our last newsletter. Whether you’ve been a loyal customer, a subscriber awaiting our next update, or simply someone curious about what we’re doing — thank you for your patience.

This is a long overdue update on the Obaggo project, and plastic film recycling in the United States in general.

In case you were wondering, our mission continues! Obaggo is working hard every day to increase the amount of post-consumer plastic bags and packaging films that are diverted from landfill, collected, and recycled. We believe that this hard-to-recycle material deserves better.

Like many companies in the manufacturing sector, Obaggo has been hit hard by the tariffs on imported goods. We necessarily purchase many of our parts from China, and assemble them in Massachusetts. However, tariffs have made it much harder to profitably produce our recycling product. We have plenty of product to ship for the coming year. But our efforts to drive our prices down in the face of a constantly changing tariff outlook is becoming more and more challenging. We will do our best to keep our prices steady as long as possible.

Plastic film recycling is a tough business, and many players have had a rough year. The industry news contains a steady stream of film recycling setbacks.

• International Recycling Group (IRG) cancelled its planned plastics recycling facility in Erie, Pennsylvania, citing tariffs, federal funding delays, and declining sustainability-commitments. International Recycling Group Cancels Plastic Recycling Project in Erie - Erie Reader

• Waste Management (WM) recently announced closure of its “Natura PCR” film recycling operation in Texas — a facility opened only recently for LDPE/LLDPE film-to-pellet production, now moth-balled due to “adverse market conditions and decreasing demand for PCR pellets”. https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/wm-closes-film-recycling-plant-future-uncertain

• A broader analysis: many “chemical recycling” projects (which often promise to break down mixed plastic films) are being cancelled or scaled back due to technical/financial barriers. https://news.oilandgaswatch.org/post/dubious-claims-of-plastics-chemical-recycling-industry-run-into-reality

Even some "successes" are not as rosy as they claim, misinformation abounds.

• For example, stories about Nova Chemical's Syndigo1 project might lead one to believe their project recycles "post-consumer" film. However, their LLDPE recovered for recycling is almost always pallet-wrap, which is very much pre-consumer. Syndigo1 stays the course in film recycling - Recycling Today

These stories underscore that even when the dollars are large, the challenges are real. That makes Obaggo's modest, deliberate approach all the more important. We are proud that we are able to continue developing our innovative business model of film densification in such a tough business environment.

What’s Going On at Obaggo?

Obaggo continues to innovate, produce and ship densification units, and we’ve steadily improved the quality and reliability of our devices. We’re grateful for the enthusiastic feedback—thank you to everyone who has integrated Obaggo into their daily or weekly recycling routines.

There are now four ways to recycle your Obaggo disks:

1. Retail Store Drop-Off: Many retail stores accept loose bags and film for recycling. Some users reported that Trex, one operator of these programs, recently encountered challenges with disks after upgrading their processing equipment. We’ve reached out to Trex for details, but haven’t yet learned the specifics. Still, we’re encouraged that disks are reaching Trex and are confident the material quality will allow them to resolve the issue. Please continue to use this method.

   
   

2. Helpsy Bins (Eastern Massachusetts): If you’re in eastern MA, you can drop bags of Obaggo disks into Helpsy clothing and shoe donation bins (find locations at helpsy.co/find-a-bin). This material is aggregated for our pilot testing program. We’re currently collecting a truckload of disks to reprocess into post-consumer resin (PCR) to be manufactured into new products.

   
   

3. Mail-In Program: If neither of the above options is available to you, you can mail your disks directly to Obaggo. These will also be used in our pilot test program.

   
   

4. Obaggo Drop-Off Network (early stages): We’re building our own network of drop-off bins, to be serviced by Obaggo, to support a fully company-run circular economy system for recycled plastic film. The locations can be found on our drop-off-locator on our website. More on this to follow.

The Pilot Program

From the beginning of the Obaggo project, it was clear what the challenges were. We would need to demonstrate that people would purchase an Obaggo device (at the right price), read the directions and produce densified film disks of the right types of plastic film, and demonstrate that the disks could be economically collected, stored, reprocessed, and made into useful new products in as circular a process as possible, making real products that people want and need.

With the resources available, we are off to a good start. It may be taking longer than we originally anticipated, but we have learned that nothing in the recycling world happens overnight. Financially, we are on our own. The plastic industry has too many of its own, enormous, failing projects to fund our initiative. Obaggo takes modest, incremental steps as we can afford them, and that is why this project is still moving forward.

We have accumulated several tons of Obaggo disks for recycling (thanks to everyone using the Helpsy donation bins). Since we are running out of storage space, it is time to reprocess the material into PCR pellets. This has been a particularly difficult step to accomplish. There are very few companies that actually reprocess plastic film, and the ones that do are extremely secretive about their operations. Several different trial runs, scheduled with different plastic recyclers, have been canceled due to lack of transparency. Seeing our material being transformed is a critical step in our circularity story. So finding the right recycling partner remains the next step in our pilot program journey.

As we navigate an industry filled with uncertainty, setbacks, and shifting realities, we remain committed to moving this project forward one careful step at a time. Your continued participation—whether by using your Obaggo unit, returning disks, sharing feedback, or simply staying engaged—has made all the difference. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made together, and even prouder that we’ve done it sustainably, responsibly, and without abandoning our mission when the road became difficult. Thank you for believing in this work. We will keep pushing, keep learning, and keep building the circular, community-driven film recycling system we know is possible. More updates are ahead, and we’re grateful to have you with us for the journey.

Best regards,

Dave New

Founder & CEO

Obaggo Recycling