Haulers in one Colorado city could be allowed to charge more for collection services due to falling recycling revenues, and Seattle considers changes to its plastic bag ban. Fort Collins, Colo.: Haulers in Fort Collins could soon be allowed to add a surcharge on customers’ bills. According to the Coloradoan, the surcharge would help offset the effects of struggling recycling...

New York City businesses achieve a waste-reduction goal, and two popular beverage companies make changes to the materials they use for packaging. Challenge accepted: Earlier this year, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio challenged major businesses in the city to cut their waste in half in six months. Results released recently from the mayor’s office show they accomplished that...

Features from the June 2016 print edition:   Subscribe today for access to all print content.

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Recently unveiled robotics technology aims to boost throughputs and reduce environmental and health risks from LCD flat-panel display recycling. German equipment company Erdwich developed a robotics system to cut and partially disassemble flat-panel display (FPD) screen devices so workers can easily remove their mercury-containing bulbs. The system is capable of processing 45 flat panels per hour and is designed for...

The U.S. market for new PCs saw "strong results" for the second quarter of 2016, though international markets showed a drop. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.4 million units. That is a year-over-year decline of 4.5 percent, but it's better than earlier forecasts of a 7.4 percent decline.The U.S. market saw year-over-year growth of...

Recently unveiled robotics technology aims to boost throughputs and reduce environmental and health risks from LCD flat-panel display recycling. German equipment company Erdwich developed a robotics system to cut and partially disassemble flat-panel display (FPD) screen devices so workers can easily remove their mercury-containing bulbs. The system is capable of processing 45 flat panels per hour and is designed for...

A Quebec company using essential oils to prepare polystyrene foam for recycling has raised millions of dollars to build a bigger plant. Montreal-based Polystyvert has announced it will use roughly $3.77 million in funding to build a processing facility capable of handling greater volumes of expanded polystyrene (EPS). The company provides generators of EPS with on-site collection containers that treat...

Monoworld Recycling has opened a multi-million dollar facility in Rushden, Northamptonshire to recover a wide range of mixed plastics. The plastics recovery facility (PRF), which cost nearly $12 million to build, is expected to recover 110,000 tons of material annually. Italian equipment firm AMUT led the build-out of the facility and TOMRA was chosen to provide sortation equipment. Optical sorters...

Our look at industry-related patents includes a technology that harnesses microwaves to recover precious metals. A method of recovering precious metals from scrap electronics in part using microwaves is the subject of Patent No. 9,328,398, awarded to Shenzhen, China-based Gem Co., Ltd.Patent No. 9,340,449, describing ceramic frit compositions including pulverized CRT glass, was given to Mississauga, Canada-based Nazim Muhammad.For more...