I decided to disassemble one of their bags to see if I can seperate the composite layers. According to the website’s FAQs:
The pouches are currently not recyclable. They are made of a composite of plastic outer layer for strength and waterproofing, and an inner layer of foil to block light which could degrade the micronutrients.
If I am reading this right, one of the main reasons why the bag is not recyclable is because it is too much of a hassle for the recycling center to separate the layers.
After breaking apart one of my empty bags, I discovered that the plastic stretches, but the foil remains rigid. This makes it easier to peel away the plastic from the foil. Separating the layers took me less than 5 minutes to do.
The only part that I could not separate is the annoying paper sticker that contains the nutrition label. This makes the foil even hard to recycle.
Take a look:
The peeled back foil is on the left and the inner plastic lining is on the right. The recyclable material (as in, the corners of the bag were it is too difficult to separate the plastic from the foil is on the upper right corner.
The plastic is easy to recycle (in theory), but the foil… I’m not so sure. There are recycling places that collect bags like this, but they typically reuse then rather than recycle the aluminum.
From reading other postings, here are the main criteria for keeping their current bag:
- Strength: The bag needs to stay strong and intact during shipping.
- Cost: The bags need to be economically feasible enough.
- Protection: The plastic helps with strength and is food safe. The foil is used to block out the damaging rays of light. Lastly, the bag should be air tight and waterproof.
If this is the case, rather than using a composite material, wouldn’t it be best just to use just two bags rather than using one bag with different materials that are adhered together which makes the current bag impossible to recycle?
If they use two bags, then perhaps they can not use foil and use waxed paper instead for the outer layer. It would be water proof and light proof. The inner bag would still be the same type of plastic which can be recycled.