Hefty^® EnergyBag^® program FAQs

The Hefty^® EnergyBag^® Program provides a simple, convenient solution for hard-to-recycle plastics such as plastic utensils, candy wrappers, pet food bags, and foam takeout containers that would otherwise be thrown away. The program is an easy addition to your current recycling routine, keeps these plastics out of landfills, and converts the materials into valued resources.
 

It’s easy! If you live in a participating program area, simply buy the Hefty^® EnergyBag^® orange bags at your local store, fill the bag with accepted hard-to-recycle plastics, and when it’s full, tie it up and place it in your curbside recycling cart or bin. Your regular recycling truck will pick up the tied bags along with your normal recycling. The recycling center then separates these bags from other materials and sends them on to facilities that use the hard-to-recycle plastics as an energy resource — or break them down to create new and useful products.

Be sure to continue your normal recycling routine. The EnergyBag^® program supplements conventional recycling – it does not replace it.

See if your community is participating. As of December 2020, the Hefty^® EnergyBag^® program is available to more than 700,000 households in 13 communities in the U.S. Together, participants have helped divert more than 2,500,000 pounds of hard-to-recycle plastics from their local landfills.

The Hefty^® EnergyBag^® program is an easy addition to what you are already doing recycling-wise. You can feel good about helping to make a difference in the amount of plastic that would otherwise end up in landfills and be a part of a community that cares about preserving our world for future generations. By participating, you are helping reduce dependence on fossil fuels and increasing the efficiency of your recycling facility.

Some plastics can be difficult to recycle because of their type, complexity, shape, size, or flexibility, and the challenges they can create for equipment at recycling facilities. Look for the small recycling symbols that are stamped on most plastic products; the number in the middle of the symbol is your guide. Numbers 1 and 2 are easily recyclable and should go with your regular recycling. Number 3 can be recycled at some, but not all, recycling facilities. Numbers 4 through 7 are the hard-to-recycle types. Most recycling facilities don’t have the equipment or sorting capabilities needed to process them, and end-markets for these materials are more challenging for them to deal with – harder to identify, harder to make cost-effective. Those are the plastics that go into the Hefty^® EnergyBag^® orange bags. 

Download the full list of the hard-to-recycle plastics accepted in the program and what shouldn’t go into the program bags.

The specially designed Hefty^® orange bags keep all the loose, hard-to-recycle plastics separate from the other materials that participants recycle. The bag is tough enough to survive the recycling truck. The bright color makes it easy for recycling facilities to separate and forward the materials they cannot process, so the hard-to-recycle plastics don’t contaminate metal, glass, paper, and other recycling streams. For the program to work, the bag must be plastic; any other material would contaminate the plastic resources inside it. The orange bag is made with 20% recycled materials and it becomes a resource right along with its contents. 

Right now, the collected hard-to-recycle materials mostly become energy resources and replace some of the coal that fuels the kilns used in cement manufacturing. In a few areas, they are converted to fuels (like diesel) via a process called pyrolysis. An independent life cycle assessment found that both solutions are environmentally better than simply sending hard-to-recycle plastics to landfills.* The materials can also be ground into smaller pieces to make new plastic products, including building products, construction materials, and plastic lumber. The Hefty^® team continues to work with companies to help advance technologies that enable other end uses for the collected plastics. 

*Source: Sustainable Solutions Corporation and S&C, Hefty^® EnergyBag^® Program Life Cycle Assessment, August 2020. 

If you are a consumer with specific questions about the Hefty^® EnergyBag^® program, email us.

For press inquires or if you are a community manager interested in starting this program in your community, email us.