A patented process for turning plastics to wax and a forward-looking update from Europe were among the topics that captured our readers' attention last month. 1 | Transforming low-value plastics into high-value waxes Through its use of a catalyst in a patented process, a Canadian company is recycling PE and PP into a variety of industrial waxes. 2 | Ontario...

Low commodities prices and increasing contamination have forced materials recovery facilities in Great Britain to significantly increase charges to municipal partners, a survey shows. An annual gate fee survey by the nonprofit group Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) shows the impacts of falling commodity values and higher levels of contamination in new contract pricing. Those are issues North American...

A county in Washington state has over the past decade developed a recycling promotion event that draws tens of thousands of attendees, all while supporting markets for recovered materials. Located in downtown Vancouver, Wash. and held annually the last weekend in June, Clark County's Recycled Arts Festival was started 11 years ago to help educate and engage the public in...

Legislation requiring cities to reduce their per-capita waste generation has gained traction in Massachusetts. The state Senate on June 28 voted 39-0 to advance S.2389 (formerly S2308). The legislation sets a statewide limit of no more than 600 pounds of waste per person per year by July 1, 2018 and no more than 450 pounds by July 1, 2022. The...

A new plastic bottle manufacturing facility is coming to London, and India pushes forward with roads made of recovered plastic. U.K.: Veolia UK has purchased a shuttered recycling facility with plans to manufacture plastic bottles from recycled material. According to Packaging BR, Veolia, a giant in the fields of waste management and environmental services, already collects 200 million plastic milk...

A label manufacturer releases a line geared toward recyclability, and a Canadian polystyrene recycling company is set to expand thanks to significant outside investment. PS recycling investment: Montreal-based Polystyvert announced it has received investor financing worth 4.9 million Canadian dollars ($3.8 million). The company collects and recycles polystyrene material in Quebec, and the investment capital will be used to scale up...

San Francisco has approved a wide-ranging ban on expanded polystyrene products. The policy goes into effect next year. The ban, which was introduced in April to broaden an existing ban on EPS food-service products, was approved unanimously last week by the City's Board of Supervisors. Taking effect on Jan. 1, 2017, the ban will cover EPS packaging, cups, plates and...

A city in Tennessee wants to get glass out of its single-stream system, and a Hawaiian county eliminates several recycling programs. Maui County, Hawaii: A lack of state funding and the high cost of recycling certain materials has led to the elimination of some recycling programs. The county will no longer handle scrap metals, batteries or paint. Officials tell The...

Big bag changes take effect in Morocco, and coffee chains in the U.K. push forward goals to recycle paper cups. Sweden: Northern European stakeholders are developing an automated system to sort and recycle textiles. Waste Management World reports the goal is to increase the amount of household and clothing textiles that are recycled from the current rate of 5 percent....

Despite packaging lightweighting, Canada boosted the amount of plastic it collected for recycling in 2014, and Houston installs 10 additional glass-collection bins. (Not a) wall of garbage: Many in the online world, including Mashable, are poking fun at presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for speaking in front of what pundits are calling a "wall of garbage." It was, in...