Denton Plastics sits where recycling meets results. As a plastics reclaimer, they transform household polypropylene containers into new products like storage bins and lawn furniture. But that downstream success depends on a strong recycling system, one that captures quality material and drives demand for products made with recycled content.
Why It Matters
In 2023, after multiple investments, Denton Plastics was processing 1.4 million pounds of residential polypropylene from Oregon MRFs. But with contamination rates reaching 40%, it became unsustainable. “We cut way back the amount of polypropylene that we brought in, because it became cost-prohibitive with that much contamination,” said Denton Plastics President Nicole Janssen.
That’s where policy steps in. Oregon’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law changes the game by expanding statewide collection for materials like polypropylene and investing in education to help residents recycle right.
What’s Next
With EPR in place, The Partnership’s role is clear—connecting policy to practice. We teamed up with Denton to ask: what will it take to manage more residential polypropylene?
The answer: a strategic, multi-source investment in an 18,000-square-foot expansion that will nearly double Denton’s processing capacity to 2.6 million pounds by 2026. The expansion comes with a $2 million price tag.
- $950,000 grant from The Partnership
- $500,000 grant from Metro’s Investment & Innovation program
- $500,000 company match from Denton
Increasing the capacity to process recycled polypropylene isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. The expansion supports Oregon’s recycling goals and strengthens end markets we must support to make recycling work. Polypropylene can be turned into durable products like construction materials, storage containers, and buckets, and these upgrades aim to keep more of that material in Oregon’s economy.
This is what it takes to deliver on Oregon’s bold new law, and offers a model for other states with EPR: align policy, infrastructure, and end markets so the material residents put into their carts and at drop-off facilities get made into something new.
Denton Plastics isn’t just growing—it’s securing the future of U.S. recycling.
Recycling’s next era is already underway. Are you in? Partner with us to get the right system in place.