The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), a project of sustainability non-profit organization GreenBlue, announced the successful completion of the soft launch phase of its How2Recycle recycling labeling system. The How2Recycle Label was designed to communicate the recyclability of packaging across all material types, while giving explicit directions to consumers to influence their recycling behavior and specifying when a package component is...

Houston will get $1 million from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, a competition that awards cash prizes to ideas aimed at solving urban problems, to fund its controversial project to recover and process recycling in the city. As part of its "One Bin for All" initiative, the nation's fourth largest city intends to build a large dirty materials recovery facility,...

In Texas, an environmental advocacy group has launched a campaign aimed at derailing the City of Houston's plans to secure funding for an ambitious project called "One Bin for All," which would allow residents to put all their discards in one container that will be sorted out at a new multi-million dollar facility. During the fall of last year, Houston's...

In California, a panel of judges has granted a victory to a former employee of Recology who is claiming that he was improperly fired in retaliation for calling attention to fraud at the waste and recycling company. On Jan. 31, a California appeals court partially reversed a decision by the San Francisco Superior Court to effectively dismiss a lawsuit brought...

A U.S. ban on the export of some types of e-scrap to developing countries could create as many as 42,000 new jobs — at least according to a new study commissioned by the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling. The study, which was conducted by DSM Environmental Services, Inc., surveyed current CAER member companies and estimated employment at 6,850, with a...

In a blockbuster announcement yesterday, Waste Management has purchased Greenstar Recycling, the owner of a dozen materials recycling facilities (MRFs) in seven states. With the buyout solidifying Waste Management's position as America's largest processor of residential and commercial recyclables, Resource Recycling followed up with Bill Caesar, president of Waste Management Recycle America, to learn more. Recycling industry players are interested...

Microsoft alleges a recycling company willfully advertised and sold refurbished computers with unlicensed copies of its software. In the suit filed Jan. 25 against Phoenix-based E-Waste Harvesters, Inc., Microsoft says it repeatedly warned the company against using its products or trademarks that it has not authorized. Specifically, the software giant says the company advertised and sold computers with Microsoft Windows...

The Librarian of Congress has determined it is now illegal to unlock mobile phones, leaving many in the burgeoning mobile device refurbishment business scrambling to determine how the law will affect their business. The Library of Congress oversees U.S. copyright law, and as of Jan. 26 it now interprets unlocking any carrier-subsidized wireless devices as a violation of the 1998...

*Update: WM's Bill Caesar on the story behind the purchase, here. In a move that will shape the recycling industry in many parts of the country, particularly in Texas, Waste Management has bought Greenstar Recycling and all of its assets. Some say the move to sell Houston-based Greenstar Recycling, which operates 12 materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in seven states, was...

In the latest episode in a long-fought battle over where the Portland metro area's commercial and residential food scraps go, a compromise has been reached — though the fight may not be over. Ever since the Portland area began sending its food scraps to the Nature's Needs composting facility in North Plains, a small city northwest of Portland, there has...