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Garbage giant Waste Management said Tuesday it will acquire a majority stake in a Houston company known for its work in advanced recycling. 

Waste Management, based in Houston and the largest waste removal company in the U.S., said the partnership with Avangard Innovative, which will create a venture known as Natura PCR, would boost the company’s ability to handle hard-to-recycle flexible plastics such as grocery bags, takeout containers and shrink wrap. 

The deal, expected to close this year, also furthers the company’s ambition to incorporate evolving technology into its operations as consumers demand that more plastics be recycled and diverted from landfills.

RECYCLE THIS: Are you recycling the right items, Houston? Test your knowledge with our game and guide.

“Today, there is so much untapped potential to reuse film – which impacts many of our commercial customers,” Waste Management CEO Jim Fish said in a statement. “We can help our customers close the loop and bring more recycled materials to the store shelf."

Waste Management gains a controlling interest in Avanguard’s U.S. business, which includes two plastics recycling facilities under development north of Houston and in Indiana. The deal’s value was not disclosed.

Natura PCR,will divert plastic films and bags from waste streams, break it down into resin and sell it back to companies such as Dow, which use it to make new plastics. Natura aims to grow its plastics recycling capacity to produce around 400 million pounds per year of post-consumer resin in five years.

Roughly a quarter of new plastic is produced for use in products such as plastic wrap and grocery store packaging, but only about 5 percent of it is recycled, said Avangard CEO Rick Perez. That is something his company is working to change.

Now, as consumers grow more environmentally conscious and increase their pressure on companies, demand is catching up with Avangard’s mission.

“Society has created this demand to do the right thing by the environment,” Perez said. “When consumers at the end of the day are expecting the supply chain to do the right thing, everything in the supply chain has to follow that demand.”

Amanda Drane is an energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

Amanda covers the Texas energy industry and the people affected by it, with a particular focus on fuel production, refining, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petrochemicals. Before joining the paper's business desk in May 2020 she worked as a City Hall reporter in Massachusetts, where she won regional awards for covering issues such as police accountability and the exploitation of undocumented restaurant workers.

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