Plastic waste now represents 11.1% of all municipal solid waste generated each year in the US (2001 US EPA Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste). This amounts to over 50 billion pounds of which only 5.5% was recovered in 2001, while the overall recovery rate for MSW for the year was over 29%. This number does not include the majority of post-industrial plastic waste, which is accounted for separately. Most of it goes to landfill, as its economic use is hindered by two integrated factors. First, plastic waste is comprised of a large number of different resins, and each type has had to be handled separately or sorted until now. Handling and sorting are expensive, and cause waste plastic to be less attractive as a feedstock for manufacturing. Second, products manufactured from waste plastics have been commodity items, and so cost of production must be kept low.

The GPT process addresses these issues. As a result, mixed plastic waste can now become an abundant and inexpensive raw material for manufactured goods. Plastic lumber and plastic/wood composites made from recycled materials already have annual sales of over $300MM, and the demand for plastic decking is growing by 50% annually. GPT technology will allow the sale of products manufactured from recycled plastics to become a multi-billion dollar industry. GPT does this by allowing the use of a mixed plastic waste stream, and by producing higher value-added products having better engineering characteristics.

Green Polymer Technologies, Inc. operates its own research and development facility in Albuquerque, and continues to explore new methods designed to improve the Green Polymer process and broaden the range of higher value products manufactured using the process.

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