Giving Unusable Plastics a Second Life

Not all plastics that come through a donation center can be reused or resold. For years, Goodwill Industries faced the same challenge at their London, Ontario headquarters—what to do with broken, contaminated, or otherwise unrecyclable plastics that were piling up in their waste stream.

Rather than sending that material to landfill, Goodwill took a bold step toward circularity by building out a new process to shred and grind unreusable plastics on-site. That’s where GreenWell came in.

We partnered with the team at Goodwill to create a new system. Now, instead of disposing of unwanted plastic, Goodwill grinds it down and sends it directly to us. We then use that material in our manufacturing process to create durable, long-lasting plastic lumber—which we use to build everything from outdoor furniture and signage to deck boards and planter boxes.

This partnership is a great example of what’s possible when non-profits and manufacturers work together to tackle waste at the source. It’s also part of a larger North American trend where Goodwill and other reuse organizations are exploring regional plastic recovery systems, as highlighted in a recent article from Waste Dive.