APR Recycling Leadership Award Winners Announced to Honor Excellence in Plastics Recyclability

Press release submitted on behalf of Association of Plastic Recyclers

The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) today announced the winners of the inaugural APR Recycling Leadership Awards during the Opening Plenary Session at the 2025 Plastics Recycling Conference (PRC). Launched in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recyclability, the awards recognize packaging designers, manufacturers, researchers, or innovators who are improving recycling for plastics.
Award categories focus on unique contributions moving plastics recycling forward. Congratulations to the following winners:
• Debra Wilson – Outstanding Leadership Award
Debra’s outstanding commitment and passion have driven over 33 years of involvement in plastic standardization activities. Her contributions have been instrumental in developing the APR Design® guidance for rigid polyolefins, ensuring alignment with industry practices for package design, collection, and recyclability.
• UNIFI – Recycling Technology Innovation Award
UNIFI is one of the world’s preeminent textile manufacturing innovators and a key leader in textile-to-textile recycling. Its REPREVE® brand has transformed billions of recycled plastic bottles into durable, high-performance textiles including apparel, home furnishings, and automotive products.
• Colgate-Palmolive – Package Design Innovation Award
Colgate-Palmolive spearheaded a paradigm shift in toothpaste package design. Dr. Jun Wang led groundbreaking innovation to design and manufacture the mono-material Samson™ tube and subsequently share the intellectual property publicly – thereby rapidly shifting an entire product category to recycle-ready packaging. Today, 90% of toothpaste tubes and 75% of all HDPE tubes on the US market are designed for recyclability.
• KW Container – PCR Utilization Award
KW Container, with its sister company KW Plastics, pioneered recycling polypropylene (PP) into paint containers at scale. Today, KW Plastics is the leading recycler of HDPE and PP in North America. KW Containers’ product line has consumed over 1 billion pounds of curbside collected PP over the last 14 years. These high volumes and consistent demand-pull have facilitated the launch of residential PP collection and helped to sustain it.

“We are pleased to honor the winners of the inaugural APR Recycling Leadership Awards on a national stage at PRC this year,” said Steve Alexander, APR President & CEO. “The APR Design® Guide is widely recognized across the globe as the authority on plastics packaging design for recyclability. As we celebrate 30 years of impact, we commend those who are driving significant change across the value chain.”
Winners will discuss their sustainability journeys, overcoming roadblocks, and advice to scale recycling innovations during a PRC Lunch & Learn panel Tuesday, March 25th at 1pm. Additional information will also be displayed in APR/Resource Recycling Central (Booth 417) at the trade show.

Founded over 30 years ago by mechanical recyclers, the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) is an international non-profit and the only North American organization focused exclusively on improving recycling for plastics. APR’s tools and resources help companies design packaging that can be recycled, support innovations that overcome existing recycling challenges, and encourage stable and reliable markets for post-consumer recycled content. Visit plasticsrecycling.org for more information.