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Spilled containers of gray plastic pellets and silver metallic flakes over a map outline of the United States, with a dark green industrial-themed background.

Post-Consumer Recycled Materials: How We’re Leading The Way To Create Sustainable Growing

For almost 80 years, East Jordan Plastics has been invested in American manufacturing, horticultural solutions, and a closed-loop recycling process that keeps plastic out of landfills. We continue down this path because we’re determined to create sustainable solutions that meet…

Spilled containers of gray plastic pellets and silver metallic flakes over a map outline of the United States, with a dark green industrial-themed background.

For almost 80 years, East Jordan Plastics has been invested in American manufacturing, horticultural solutions, and a closed-loop recycling process that keeps plastic out of landfills. We continue down this path because we’re determined to create sustainable solutions that meet our partners’ quality standards. To us, sustainability is more than a marketing strategy, it’s at the root of everything we do. It informs our vision. It’s the foundation for our mission. It’s the basis for our values.

What Are Post-Consumer Recycled Materials?

We create sustainable solutions by collecting used horticultural plastic containers within North America, putting them through our recycling process and turning them into new products. As a part of our ecological goals and efforts, we have achieved Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Plastic Certification from AM Testing and continue to participate in the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) PCR Certification Program.

This effort highlights our dedication to sustainability and supply chain integrity. Certification aside, our process and dedication to simply doing the right thing has helped us become the largest recycler of horticultural plastic in North America.

What is a closed-loop system for plastics?

  • On average, across all products, more than 35% of the raw material we use in manufacturing is PCR.
  • On average, across all products, 75% of the raw material we use comes from recycled sources.
  • These materials come back to our facilities and get turned into quality, clean regrind.

Our closed-loop process is where we manufacture new, sustainably designed containers—made with up to 100% PCR plastic—and then repeat the process over and over. It’s the key to our sustainability efforts, and we believe fully energy-efficient, closed-loop recycling only truly becomes circular when it’s fully committed to using domestic materials.

We have the capacity to recycle 50 million pounds of used plastic from horticultural containers each year … a potential 3.5 million cubic feet of landfill saved.

American-Made Growing Containers

Through our process, containers used by North American horticultural growers and retailers are collected, reprocessed, and remanufactured right here. This loop reduces waste and ensures the material stays in the horticultural industry where it belongs. And because we control the entire closed-loop process—from collection and grinding to manufacturing—we can ensure the consistent, high-quality products our industry needs to grow quality plants.

Most importantly, we believe that manufacturing containers right here in the United States sends a strong message to our industry about what’s possible.

We have the capacity to recycle 50 million pounds of used plastic from horticultural containers each year. That’s a potential 54,500,000 million pounds of CO₂ emissions saved and 3.5 million cubic feet of landfill saved.

That’s a lot.

But these savings go away the moment imported, foreign plastics become a part of the loop. Importing plastic materials breaks this circular process and only increases transportation emissions (and the chance for subpar materials to be introduced into the process). In addition, imported PCR materials are not subject to the same standards as North American certified streams, which allows for greenwashing and false claims to be made.

We are PCR

Our PCR Plastic Certification from APR legitimizes our recycling efforts and shows our commitment to creating sustainable solutions for our partners. This accreditation means our recycled materials have gone through a process to verify our percentage of PCR content. These findings have been reviewed. They’ve validated our PCR input. This regulatory oversight and third-party certification is so our customers understand that we don’t simply talk the talk when it comes to sustainability. We’ve proven it.

Supporting domestic manufacturing and recycling

To manufacture sustainable horticultural containers with PCR sourced here in North America is how we make The Sustainable Choice. This decision helps support jobs in North America, local communities, domestic recycling, and a stronger—more resilient—supply chain.

Our recycling process benefits everyone.

And when you get involved and make The Sustainable Choice, you’re helping grow a North American, circular economy and increase the demand for recycled materials. At East Jordan Plastics, we’re proud to lead this effort, building the infrastructure and partnerships to truly make a difference.

We hope you’ll join us.

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