What Growing Film Recycling Means for Food Producers
Good news does not come along every day in packaging, so here is some. According to the 2024 U.S. Post-Consumer Plastic Recycling Study, at least 5.1 billion pounds of post-consumer plastic were recovered for recycling in the United States in 2024, up roughly 115 million pounds from 2022.
Plastic film grew the most of any category. Film recovery rose by 206.8 million pounds to more than 1.3 billion pounds, and nearly 94% of the recovered plastic in the study was processed right here in North America.
For food producers, that is more than a feel-good number. Here is what it means and what to do with it.
Is all flexible packaging recyclable now?
Not yet, and the report does not claim it is. "Plastic film" is a broad category. It covers bags, wraps, commercial films, and other flexible polyethylene materials. The report does not say that every flexible food package can go in a curbside bin, and it does not say every recycling facility can process one.
What it does say: the recovery system works, it is growing, and the industry has a real chance to help it grow further. That is the honest version, and it is still good news.
Opportunity 1. Start with the whole application, not the material
Packaging has one job before any other: protect the product. A package that leaks, tears, or cuts shelf life short creates damaged product, food waste, complaints, and rejected shipments. No sustainability goal survives that.
The opportunity is to bring recyclability into the conversation early, while the package is still being designed, instead of retrofitting it after a customer request or a regulatory deadline shows up. Early is when there is still time to test whether a package can be downgauged, whether layers or labels can go, whether a polyethylene structure fits the application, and whether the new structure will actually run on your equipment.
Opportunity 2. Use less material, but test it first
Flexible packaging already does a lot with a little. Thinner films mean lighter packages, better cube efficiency, and more units per pallet.
But a thinner package that fails during filling, sealing, or shipping creates more waste than it prevents. So lightweighting is a testing project, not a purchasing decision. Film strength, seal integrity, puncture resistance, filling speeds, and shipping conditions all get a vote. The goal is the most efficient structure that still performs the whole way through, which is rarely the thinnest one.
Opportunity 3. Know your packaging data before someone asks for it
Retailers and foodservice buyers are asking harder questions about packaging, and seven states have now enacted Extended Producer Responsibility laws that will require more consistent reporting.
The producers who will have an easy time are the ones who already know their numbers: material and structure, package weight, annual volume, resin type, recycled content, and the claims printed on the package. Start that file now and every questionnaire, retailer initiative, and fee estimate down the road gets simpler.
Opportunity 4. Help create demand for recycled material
Here is the catch in the study: recyclers are collecting more, but demand for recycled resin is weak and virgin resin is cheap. Collection only matters if someone buys what gets collected.
Recycled content is not right for every food package. Direct food contact brings regulatory and safety considerations. But secondary packaging, distribution films, stretch wrap, and warehouse materials are all places where many producers can put recycled content to work today, and every purchase like that strengthens the system the whole industry is counting on.
Opportunity 5. Lean on your supplier
A good packaging supplier does not stop at quoting a bag by its dimensions. They know the product, the filling equipment, the distribution environment, and the sustainability goals, and they can tell you which environmentally attractive ideas are technically sound and which ones are just attractive.
That same collaboration keeps claims honest. Words like "recyclable" and "sustainable" carry legal weight, and they should be backed by the package design and the local collection reality, not by hope.
The takeaway
Film recycling is growing. The system is not finished, and no single statistic changes what a package needs to do. But producers who get intentional now, about materials, data, and design, will be ready when customers and regulators come asking.
At Fox Packaging and Fox Solutions, we help food producers look at flexible packaging as one system, from the package structure to the filling equipment to where it all ends up. That is the conversation worth having, and it is a better one to have early.
SOURCES
US post-consumer plastic recycling jumps in latest report - Plastic News
