Film and flexible packaging (FFP) remains one of the most challenging materials in the recycling system. Under California’s SB 54 law, improving recovery will take more than collection alone. It will require a connected supply chain capable of capturing material, processing it, and finding responsible end markets.
Through strategic investments and partnerships across the value chain in its CalFFlex initiative, The Recycling Partnership (The Partnership) is helping build that system today.
Capturing Material Before It Becomes Waste
At materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in California, FFP presents a significant operational challenge.
Although the material is not accepted through local programs, it still makes upwards of 10% of tons generated in the home. At such high volumes it is often mistakenly put into a household’s recycling, picked up by haulers, and makes its way to MRFs or secondary sortation facilities where it can cause inefficiencies and delays in MRF operations, contaminate other commodities, and reduce the quality of marketable bales.
To address this challenge through its CalFFlex initiative, The Partnership supported a major MRF in Northern California and a secondary sortation facility in Southern California with technical assistance and grants to identify efficiencies and investments to separate and capture incidental film. These projects help protect the quality of other recyclable materials while creating a dedicated stream of FFP as an emerging marketable commodity that previously would have been lost to residue.
In other words, the system now has something it didn’t have before: residential film supply.
Building Capacity for The Future
Capturing residential film in the recycling stream is only valuable if someone can process it. That’s where Valemi comes in.
The Partnership’s first investment in Valemi, awarded in 2024, expanded the facility’s secondary sortation capabilities for residential film and flexible packaging. The project strengthened Valemi’s role as a processor in California’s evolving recycling supply chain and demonstrated the value of targeted investments in downstream infrastructure.
Through The Partnership’s CalFFlex initiative, in partnership with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Valemi, Inc. was awarded a grant in 2025 to expand the facility’s film and flexible packaging processing capacity by 200%. The Valemi project highlights how regional, targeted investments can open market opportunities and connect increasing material capture with growing downstream processing infrastructure.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to increase the diversion of neglected films and flexible plastics.” – Juan Hernandez, CEO, Valemi, Inc.
Creating Pathways to End Markets
Processing capacity is critical, but a recycling system is only complete when recovered material has somewhere to go. That’s why The Partnership and CalFFlex have invested more than $3M in nearly 20% of the FFP end market facilities in North America since 2022, to expand capacity and capabilities for converting residential FFP into new products. For Valemi, this includes FFP being converted into trash bags, pellets, durable goods, composite lumber, and more.
The U.S. Flexible Film Initiative (USFFI) is demonstrating that film can be recycled when operating costs are subsidized, paying MRFs and reclaimers to recycle curbside film and covering the cost of transport. CalFFlex supports this work and sees it as a great complement to its own efforts, further connecting MRFs and end market grantees to additional support systems to help move the first 2.6M pounds of early residential California FFP material through the system to existing end markets.
But the work must extend beyond equipment investments and existing end market supports to also pioneer new and emerging end market solutions. CalFFlex is actively sending innovation test loads of residential FFP to over a dozen nascent or emerging mechanical end markets as of summer 2026. Once test results and customer demand are confirmed, further investment in new markets will be needed to keep growing and expanding this new commodity market for FFP.
By combining industry expertise, strategic partnerships, and targeted investment, The Partnership is helping to identify practical solutions, gather real-world data, and accelerate the development of markets capable of supporting California’s long-term recycling goals.
Preparing for EPR
SB 54 mandates are expected to result in significant, much needed investments and improvements in the recycling system. Meeting those targets will take more than individual projects. It will require a connected system.
The CalFFlex investments, demonstrated by Valemi and dozens of other projects underway, show what that system COULD look like: material capture, processing capacity, and end market development working together.
The work is still evolving, but early progress shows how strategic investments and cross-sector collaboration can create new pathways for FFP—and help prepare California’s recycling system for what comes next.
No Single Partner Can Solve This Alone
Film and flexible packaging presents one of recycling’s most complex challenges. Success requires coordination across the supply chain.
This project brings together:
- CalFFlex and Alliance to End Plastic Waste to amplify investment
- US Flexible Film Initiative to help strengthen end-market pathways
- Valemi Inc. to expand processing capacity
Together, these investments connect supply, infrastructure, and demand, creating the conditions needed to scale FFP recycling in California.