The Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER) recently announced that Arrow Value Recovery officially joined the group in its effort to pass the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA). While it may seem odd for a global e-scrap player to support a bill limiting exports of e-scrap, an Arrow VP said in practice such legislation aligns with the firm's business model...

Coca-Cola has released its first bottle with a shrink-sleeve label that was designed to meet guidelines outlined by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR). The holiday-themed Orb bottle is exclusive to Walmart stores and will serve as a test of the new design process and material composition. A spokesperson for Coca-Cola says that if the pilot goes well, the...

Processors of packaging waste in the U.K. are calling for major reforms to the current packaging recovery note (PRN) system, which they contend encourages exports of scrap material. At a recycling seminar hosted by the British Plastics Federation (BPF), several industry members voiced their support for changes to the system first introduced in 1997. While the original intent of the...

The overall recycling rate for PET containers rose incrementally in 2012 while domestic demand for recycled PET (rPET) continued to trump supply. Those are the takeaways from the "Report on Postconsumer Recycling Activity in 2012," released today by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR). Representing modest year-over-year gains, overall PET...

New York City has begun e-scrap collection at a handful of apartment buildings in the five boroughs. The effort, launched Sept. 23, represents a significant step for the city's e-cycleNYC program, which was announced in May and aims to eventually make electronics recycling as simple as a walk down the hall for hundreds of thousands of Gotham apartment dwellers. Fifteen...

The 11th annual E-Scrap Conference — held this week in Orlando, Florida — concluded with a debate on the pros and cons of potential national legislation on electronics recycling. Eric Harris, ISRI director of government and international affairs, argued the bill as currently written would be a burden on processors and impede the growth of the scrap recycling industry. The...

The 11th annual E-Scrap Conference — held this week in Orlando, Florida — concluded with a debate on the pros and cons of potential national legislation on electronics recycling. Eric Harris, ISRI director of government and international affairs, argued the bill as currently written would be a burden on processors and impede the growth of the scrap recycling industry. The...

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has released its July 2013 quarterly report on its Beverage Container Recycling Fund, and the outlook is not encouraging. Echoing CalRecycle's April 2013 report, the latest numbers indicate that, without major reforms to the current bottle deposit system, the recycling fund will be insolvent by March 2015. The latest data, in...

Another sentence has been handed out in the U.K.'s largest-ever bust of illegal e-scrap exports. A British court ordered Terence Dugbo to pay roughly $141,000 in fees and penalties for his role in an effort that illegally sent scrap from the U.K. to Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan. The U.K. Environment Agency in 2008 started a lengthy investigation into a large...

It's official: The Recycling Organizations of North America (RONA) and the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) are joining forces. Board members of the NRC unanimously approved the move late last week for RONA to dissolve and join the NRC. RONA members approved the unification earlier this month. In effect, the NRC will receive RONA's assets and incorporate RONA programming, including the...