A Solution To The Blue Wrap Waste Problem

August 18, 2018

August 21, 2018


Today’s article is by Jonathan Flanders, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Circular Blu,. It was originally posted on the Circular Blu Blog on December 19, 2017.


Key Takeaways:

  • Once blue wrap has been used in hospitals for sterilization, it is usually landfilled despite being a clean and useful fabric
  • Blue wrap is a plastic fabric that is exactly the same as the material used for reusable shopping bags
  • Billions of reusable shopping bags made from extracted resources are shipped across the world and imported to the U.S.
  • We could be creating jobs, decreasing our waste, and fighting climate change by making bags domestically out of this blue wrap waste product instead of importing.
  • The Recycling industry is being strained by extraction of cheap natural gas in the U.S. and China no longer accepting recyclables, this is increasing the need for repurposing.


In the United States we dispose of 200 million lbs of plastic #5 that is perfectly clean and reusable, while simultaneously importing around 100 million lbs of the same exact material, mostly from East Asia.


Essentially, 100 millions lbs of plastic is being thrown away for no reason, despite Earth being in the middle of the greatest environmental crisis known to man (climate change.)


In a capitalistic society governed by climate deniers, the onus falls upon both the consumer and the free market to solve this disconnect.


The stubbornly ironic part is that part of the problem is caused by people making what has been accepted as “sustainable choices”. Bear with me, I’ll explain…


If you’re at this blog I am assuming you know what blue wrap is, and have had an ongoing struggle (or journey) deciding how best deal with this “low-hanging fruit”.


But there are lots of reasons why blue wrap ends up in the trash… or maybe even the RMW stream, increasing waste disposal costs and environmental strain (often due to incineration of RMW).

  • Maybe there isn’t room at your hospital to store blue wrap and you don’t have access to a baler…
  • Maybe your hospital has a contract with a certain waste hauler who won’t recycle blue wrap due to its volume to weight and difficulty to recycle…
  • Maybe you’re having trouble getting your OR staff to properly segregate blue wrap…


Well some of these problems are only going to get worse as the price of natural gas continues to plummet due to the increase in fracking and other methods of petro-extraction in the US.


In fact, the amount of oil produced in the US has almost doubled in recent years.


Some may consider this a good thing but the truth of the matter is that low oil prices interfere with what recyclers are paid for plastics, making it harder for recyclers to recycle and causing a reduction in plastic recycling overall.

It gets worse…


China has recently decided to stop accepting our recyclable wastes. The U.S. Has been exporting roughly one third of it’s recycling, with about half going to china. However, that will end starting on Jan. 1st of 2018. This has created chaos in the recycling industry and recyclers are scrambling to address the issue, while plastics are just going into the trash.


However, there is a solution because there is a process that is even better for the world than merely recycling. This process is called repurposing, also known as upcycling. When Upcycled, blue wrap is not turned into recycled plastic resin, and doesn’t have to compete with the unobtainable price points derailing recyclers.


Blue wrap is essentially a nonwoven polypropylene plastic fabric, and around 80% of it can be collected so that it is perfectly clean and able to be repurposed or upcycled.


Ok, so blue wrap can be upcycled, but what could we possibly upcycle hundreds of millions of pounds of nonwoven polypropylene (NWPP) into?


The answer is reusable shopping bags and tote bags! This seems a little far-fetched right?


The answer is… maybe not.


Here are the results of a U.S. International Trade Commission search query regarding the amount of reusable tote bags imported into the US since 1999.

You can see in the search results that the United States imported over 600 million reusable tote bags in 2015. Despite the slightly misleading title in the search results, reusable shopping totes are categorized under Harmonized Tariff Code (HTC) 4202923031.


Here is a little bit of the environmental impact of the reusable shopping bag craze… A couple metrics on the environmental cost of these reusable tote bags for just the year 2015:

  • 396 million kWh of electricity used in the manufacturing of those totes.
  • 296 million lbs of CO2e- created and released into atmosphere


–Check out this infographic on why your choice of reusable bag matters–


Then there is the staggering statistic that over 6.25 Billion reusable tote bags have been imported since 1999. Divide that by the population of the U.S. (326,814,051 at time of writing), and that means there are almost 20 reusable tote bags for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. assuming they are still around and being re-used.


I think this makes it pretty apparent that reusable shopping bags are just acting as a more resource-intensive disposable bag, completely eroding the intention behind the movement…



Here is a brief overview of the supply of blue wrap and the demand for Nonwoven PP shopping bags:

Yes that’s right… If we managed to only upcycle half of the amount of blue wrap thrown away each year we could make a huge difference.


If instead, we chose to take the material for those tote bags out of our waste by upcycling blue wrap instead of importing NWPP, in 2015 we would have:

  • Prevented 150 million lbs of blue wrap from being disposed of (typically landfilled).
  • Saved 396 million kWh of electricity used in the manufacturing of those totes.
  • Prevented 296 million lbs of CO2e from entering atmosphere.

Circular Blu is dedicated to creating circular economic products that are socially and environmentally responsible. It just makes sense to use PCR blue wrap to create tote bags. It is for this reason that we call them The World’s Most Sustainable Tote Bag. Are you willing to take sustainability seriously and cut through the greenwashing?


I certainly am.


Jonathan Flanders is Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Circular Blu, as well as Owner and Founder of Greenfellow Enterprises. He has a B.S. degree in Environmental Science and Chemistry from Plymouth State University. Circular Blu seeks to create, promote, and sustain the circular economy. Circular Blu works with the healthcare and business sectors to divert materials from landfill and redefine the value of waste by creating sustainable circular economy products. The article is reprinted by permission.


NERC welcomes Guest Blog submissions. To inquire about submitting articles contact Megan Schulz-Fontes. Disclaimer: Guest blogs represent the opinion of the writers and may not reflect the policy or position of the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.

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EBC Welcomes New Member: Northeast Recycling Council (NERC)

By Environmental Business Council of New England • July 23, 2026
Please join the Environmental Business Council of New England (EBC) in welcoming Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) as a new member of the organization. “NERC is a non-profit organization that conducts research, hands-on projects, training, and outreach on issues associated with source reduction, recycling, composting, environ­mentally preferable purchasing, and decreasing the toxicity of the solid waste stream. Eleven states united for environmentally sustainable materials management. We provide webinars, conferences, networking, blogs, and regional collaboration to drive the recycling economy. Special programs include: Government Recycling Demand Champions, State Electronics Challenge, Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse, and the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse. “ EBC members include businesses and nonprofits specializing in environmental and energy technology, services, and products. They range from one-person entrepreneurial ventures and nonprofit organizations to established corporations with thousands of employees. Explore the EBC Member Directory for a complete listing of member organizations. To learn more about Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) including their discipline and services provided, please follow the link . Read on EBCNE .

US thrift boom could keep more textiles from landfills as Gen Z drives resale

By James Nanzo | The Cool Down • July 16, 2026
Americans looking to stretch their budgets are increasingly turning to thrift stores, and that shift could pay off in ways that go beyond cheaper fashion, as Retail Dive detailed . Growing interest in resale could also cut textile waste by keeping clothing in use longer before it ends up in the trash. What's happening? At a Northeast Recycling Council webinar, panelists described thrift stores as an important checkpoint before clothing becomes waste, according to Retail Dive. As secondhand shopping becomes more common, more garments have a chance to be reused, resold, repaired, or otherwise redirected instead of being thrown away. Giana Manganaro Cronin, associate director of retail for More Than Words, said high prices, tariff worries, and broader economic uncertainty have made more consumers willing to thrift, as Retail Dive reported. Young consumers are a big part of that momentum. Cronin said roughly 64% of Gen Z shoppers check resale avenues before purchasing something new, according to Retail Dive. Meanwhile, Uli Stosch, chief officer of strategic development for Planet Aid, pointed to a ThredUp report cited by Retail Dive that estimated 14% growth in the U.S. secondhand apparel market in 2024 and a rise to $74 billion by 2029. Why does it matter? For budget-conscious households, secondhand shopping can mean major savings on basics such as jeans, jackets, and kids clothes along with the chance to find rare or high-value items at steep discounts. A big challenge with textile waste is that clothing is hard to sort and recycle. Katarina Goodge, a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said recyclers often do not have the details they need to handle garments correctly, per Retail Dive. "We need to know the fiber content to know how to recycle that garment," Goodge explained at the summit, according to the outlet. The reach of secondhand clothing goes well beyond local thrift racks. Retail Dive reported that more than 1.5 billion people globally depend on secondhand clothing, and that a study from Full Cycle Resource revealed Guatemala imported 290 million pounds in 2023, reusing more than 91% of it. Even so, Stosch said many stores sell only about 10-50% of what they receive, with some of the remainder compressed for export under the "mixed rags" label, according to Retail Dive. Keeping clothes in circulation longer can reduce strain on landfills and lower demand for resource-intensive new production. Still, the clothes that don't make it aren't easy to deal with. Stosch said workers in countries such as Pakistan and Malaysia often sort clothing by hand, according to Retail Dive. What's being done? Possible solutions are coming from both researchers and policymakers. Goodge said that handheld near-infrared tools used with artificial intelligence or machine learning could speed up fiber identification, which may eventually make textile recycling more practical at scale, per Retail Dive. States are also stepping in, Retail Dive noted. In Massachusetts, textile disposal bans have already drawn more attention to clothing that cannot be resold. Stosch said receiving clean but slightly damaged clothing is workable for thrift stores, according to Retail Dive. The outlet reported that California is putting its textile extended producer responsibility law into effect, a move expected to expand donation, repair, and recycling options. Goodge concluded that repair has "huge potential" to cut into the problem, as Retail Dive reported . Read article on yahoolife.

Sustainable Generation

By Sophie Leone • July 13, 2026
Sustainable Generation (SG) is an industry leader in composting innovation. Their team brings together over 200+ years of collective experience, working together to deliver scalable systems and produce high-quality compost. SG ADVANCED COMPOSTING™ Technology has been rigorously vetted and received independent third-party validation. Their technology is designed to reduce risk, optimize operational outcomes, and exceed environmental benchmarks. At SG “performance isn't just efficiency – its environmental responsibility” and that shows in the work they do and the technology they produce. Sustainable Generation leads with a climate-start approach that allows them to perform at a high level in all aspects. Their composting technology impact can be seen in the >95% VOC reduction, validated in the field and certified by air distributors; stormwater protection, zero-contact cover design; GHG mitigation, reducing methane by 80% compared to organic waste going to landfill and more. They're committed to the industry in a multitude of ways, engaging with local and global stakeholders. SG continues to lead by example, share best practices, and contribute to policy development. NERC is excited to welcome Sustainable Generation to our ever-expanding organics management community. We look forward to supporting their mission rooted in climate resilience and the immensely impactful work they are doing. For more information on Sustainable Generation visit.