SAN DIEGO — The US Flexible Film Initiative announced its inaugural slate of contracts on Monday. The nonprofit, which was founded by consumer brands last year and acts like a broker, is working with MRF operators Valemi and GreenWaste and plastic film reclaimers EFS Plastics and Merlin Plastics.
USFFI participants spoke at SPC Advance in San Diego on Monday. USFFI Executive Director Maite Quinn-Richards said the group’s initial RFI at the end of 2025 attracted some 32 applicants. Working with a subset of MRFs and reclaimers, USFFI consistently moved material and identified what it was going to take to make a viable bale and where they could go.
USFFI reported that, to date, it’s moved more than 3 million pounds of flexible plastic packaging from California MRF collection programs to reclaimers in the United States and Canada for processing. The offtake agreements support up to eight loads of recycled flexible plastic per month.
Led by food and pet food companies, USFFI launched in 2025 to fund film and flexible plastic packaging recycling initiatives, focused specifically on California. Businesses there are up against recyclability requirements laid out by SB 54. The extended producer responsibility law set targets for all single-use packaging and plastic food ware to be recyclable or compostable by 2032, and for packaging to reach a 30% recycling rate by 2028.
The needle wasn’t moving fast enough for flexible packaging, and USFFI found a gap in operational subsidies to MRFs and reclaimers. Eadaoin Quinn, sustainable packaging senior manager at USFFI member company Mars, called the new contracts “a very big deal because it’s not just showing that it can be done, but it’s actually commitment” long-term from both USFFI and recyclers.
USFFI has said it could expand to other states with EPR programs in the future. “We’re really excited to share this with the regulators in California, regulators in Minnesota, Washington, to see that brands are committed to this. It's not just talking,” Quinn said.
“If we could switch to a readily recyclable package tomorrow, that would be the best. But there are reasons that we are choosing to be in flexible packaging, and therefore we need to choose to see it through to end of life,” she added.
USFFI believes the new agreements can help prove that circularity for flexibles is possible and establish a little more supply-demand certainty. Kevin Kelly, CEO of USFFI associate member company Emerald Packaging, said in Monday’s announcement that these tangible contracts are “exactly the outcome we hoped to help create.”
“It shows circularity is achievable when recyclers can sell the material at a profit,” he said.
USFFI has opened a next round of requests for information for California-based MRFs and for plastic reclaimers and secondary processors that could receive material. The deadline is Dec. 18.
