Media Contact: Mike Verespej
Email: mverespej@crain.com
Phone: (202) 662-7325

The full committee at ASTM International Inc. charged with approving any new plastics industry resin identification code is currently voting on eight proposals that passed out of the subcommittee in the first vote.

The proposals under consideration include adding code 8 for polycarbonate and code 9 for linear low density polyethylene. Previous proposals to add code 10 for polylactic acid and code 11 for polyesters that are not PET are not under consideration at this time.

Current balloting will continue through Dec. 21, but several more ballots will be necessary before a final plan is in shape. Final changes are likely 1-3 years away.

“The resin identification code process is long and we have not seen” all the proposals yet, said Dave Cornell, technical director for the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers in Washington.

Cornell said he personally believes that resins and resin families with annual usage of 50-100 million pounds should have their own RIC number and that PLA would meet that minimum tonnage level.

The resin identification code was not developed as a recycling code, but it is what consumers and municipalities use to identify plastic products for recycling. PET, high density PE, PVC, LDPE, polypropylene and polystyrene are currently designated 1-6, respectively, with everything else given a 7.

The code was developed in 1988 by the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., but the task of possibly changing elements of the code has since been turned over to West Conshohocken, Pa.-based ASTM.

ASTM’s D20.95 subcommittee on recycled plastics is spearheading the effort.