A big part of Orlando King’s passion is encouraging more innovative ways for Americans to reduce, reuse, and recycle items, building and sustaining a more environmentally-friendly culture. This is why Orlando King is so proud to have built a career in the waste management industry, currently serving as CFO and COO for 360 Recycling Inc., a minority-owned natural floral recycling company.
While his current position may be the managing of turning yard debris into useful compounds, Orlando King proudly stays abreast of all exciting innovations and trends throughout the recycling and waste management industry. The following is a look at a few of the most exciting such ones:
Orlando King Shares 3 Recycling Trends for 2022
- Tech-equipped dumpsters for more efficient recycling and waste management routes. This unique tech is already being implemented across Europe and Orlando King expects this to be the year that municipalities across the United States do the same. Here, special sensor hardware gets outfitted on recycling and garbage disposal units and residential dumpsters, and those sensors get linked with front-end software for data like where and how much trash and recycling going on. This data has the early benefit of enabling managers to plan more efficient truck routes and the long-term benefit of helping local leaders learn where more directed recycling efforts should be taken.
- More companies recycling plastics into products. Orlando King’s company’s core business is about recycling old materials into useful products, and so he sees this trend as especially exciting. PureCycle is the company at the head of this trend as they have created a ground-breaking process that separates contaminants from plastic waste and transforms the material into reusable resin. In 2021, PureCycle successfully created a marketable recycled plastic showerhead and hopes to see more companies license the technology to create greater market possibilities.
- Push for more compostable packaging materials. Another exciting business trend Orlando King expects to happen in 2022 is the switch to more environmentally-friendly packaging materials. In 2021, PepsiCo, a multinational conglomerate and global leader in snack food and beverages, started introducing a line of fully compostable bags for their Off the Eaten Path brand. Expect to see more and more companies and product lines feature such packaging materials, as both consumers’ demand for such increases and government regulations reflective of a need to protect the environment likewise increases.
Be Positive; There is a Lot to Look Forward To
Too much of environmental news is negative and while there is a place for voicing concern, there must be more room made for the positive impacts of human ingenuity and empathy. As this quick list of Orlando King’s most favorite trends for this year and the coming years shows, businesses big and small — start-ups to multinational corporations — are getting in on the recycling and sustainability train. Plus, you have the more active interventions of government, such as with the use of waste and recycling bin hardware, to build more sustainable communities. It is a lot of good news and 360 Recycling Inc. is proud to be a part of it!