San Diego non-profit Plastic Beach was founded in 2019 with a focus on scaling commercial flex filmrecycling via educational and operational support of businesses in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. To date, they have successfully diverted nearly 150 tons of this almost entirely ignored plastictype. In doing so they have encountered many territorial and legislative issues that place major roadblocks to the inclusion of flex film packaging in California’s SB54 recycling mandate, and its aim of rapidly increasing recycling rates for plastic packaging to 65 % by 2032.
Of all the most prevalent plastic types, flex film is proving to be the most challenging to take responsibility for. It is extremely transient, and its nature as packaging discourages ownership of its recycling. Productmanufacturers, retailers, and consumers rely on flex film packaging to keep items organized, clean, andprotected – consumer foods, durable goods, manufacturing parts, bulk shipments, medical supplies etc.
There is a growing demand for flex film recycling, from both the residential and commercial sectors, with 75% of Americans supporting national policies to reduce single-use plastics, and many businesses wishingto include it in their landfill diversion programs. The inundation of media decrying the toxicity of microplastics and its growing prevalence in our environment – including our water, food, and bodies -has buoyed this public outcry. Although there is this rising demand for efficient, sustainably packaged goods – and for recycling options for materials that need it – neither producers nor consumers really want to take ownership of the discarded flex film plastic and it is this invisible undertow in the world of plastic waste that Plastic Beach is tackling.
Public perception is to blame others for low recycling rates, while slow to take responsibility for their own flex film footprints – such as their car’s manufacturing using 20,000-30,000 parts, with each usuallydelivered to the assembly line in flex film packaging, or the average phone, which is made of 30-50+ constituent parts, with packaging not just for incoming components, but the outgoing product itself. Unfortunately, for the California public the grocery bag ban has become the cornerstone of their knowledgeof California’s flex film plastic recycling problems, dominating conversations about the true scale of the flex film issue.
In reality, a product’s producer and it’s consumers are beholden to the extreme scarcity of recycling options for flex film plastic packaging, and even if both parties want to recycle it, there are not established streams toreadily do so, leading to the overriding reason its recycling rates are sub 2% according to The Recycling Partnership – a non-profit dedicated to improving recycling streams across the US: “Film and flexiblesrepresent more than 2% of the single stream material delivered into our MRFs today.” Unfortunately, discarded flex film’s flimsy nature challenges established recycling infrastructures, as when co-mingled with other recyclables at Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), flex plastics easily tangle in the pulleys, parts, and sensitive equipment that make up the conveyor-based sort lines, causing costly outages.
There are also systemic barriers like exclusive hauler agreements that cause further complications, with approximately 90% of California’s jurisdictions estimated to contract for solid waste, compost, and recycling services through franchise agreements. These private companies provide approximately 70% of California’s 39 million residents with collection, processing, and disposal services, and the franchisesarrangements often block 3rd party haulers capable and able to recycle this flex film material.
Municipal legislation binding these exclusive franchise agreements often conflicts with that city’s own sustainability goals, but with their franchisee haulers neither mandated nor incentivized to recycle flex filmsit does not happen, leading to potentially thousands of tons of a city’s otherwise-recyclable plastic flex film going directly to landfills each year instead. According to CalRecycle figures, over 95% of flex film plastic is presently ending up in landfill or as environmental pollutants, though Plastic Beach’s statistics suggest that figure is probably more than 98%.
Businesses and leaders in our communities are stepping forward to meet California’s plastic recycling problem head on, and Plastic Beach is keen to assist. City legislators and haulers also need to showleadership in this field too, by directly supporting 3rd party solutions to this problem, or at least ensuringfranchise agreements and legislation are written in such a way as to not preclude others trying.
On a local level, Plastic Beach is proving that flex film plastic collection and recycling programs can beestablished, and scaled – illustrating both the scale, and solvability of this. At a state level, addressing the systemic issues highlighted here aids SB54 aspirations, along with benefiting economies by the creation ofUS jobs, and an increase of US-produced recycled-plastic feedstock.
Author
Matthew Clough
Executive Director Plastic Beach 6.12.2026
