Struggles at facilities on both sides of the country demonstrate how local programs can be left in the lurch when nearby sorting capacity constricts. In Zion Crossroads, Va., van der Linde Recycling & Container Rentals recently shut down sorting at its mixed-waste MRF and will now focus on recovering construction and demolition debris. "The decision to close our household waste...

The Home Depot will pay nearly $28 million in a California settlement involving disposal of household hazardous waste, electronics, batteries and intact customer information. According to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, the Atlanta-based retailer will pay $18.5 million in civil penalties and costs, provide $2.5 million to fund supplemental environmental projects and spend at least $6.8 million complying with...

A large-scale, high-tech e-scrap recycling facility in Hong Kong will hold an official opening ceremony next week. The 98,000-square-foot facility has multiple lines to process different types of scrap electronics and electrical appliances. It is designed to handle 30,000 metric tons of material per year, but with extra shifts can increase capacity to 57,000 metric tons. The facility has four...

The e-scrap arm of Arrow Electronics handled nearly 6.3 million used devices last year, 44 percent of which were redeployed, sold or donated for reuse. The publicly traded company, which had global sales of $28.6 billion in 2017, distributes electronics components and provides related services. It recently released its annual social responsibility and sustainability report, providing a few details about Arrow’s...

The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about how changing smartphone markets are opening up business opportunities in the used phone sector. According to the article, five years ago, about half of used phones purchased from auctions run by California-based B-Stock Solutions went to U.S. buyers, and the other half went to customers internationally. Now, about 93 percent of purchases are...

The Home Depot will pay nearly $28 million in a California settlement involving disposal of e-scrap, batteries, household hazardous waste and intact customer information. According to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, the Atlanta-based retailer will pay $18.5 million in civil penalties and costs, provide $2.5 million to fund supplemental environmental projects and spend at least $6.8 million complying with...

The Association of Plastic Recyclers will explore high-interest topics during its 2018 webinars, including California's packaging regulations, a project to pinpoint plastics that fall through the cracks, sustainable materials management's relationship to recycling and more. The following are the 2018 webinar dates and titles: March 27: EU and CA Packaging Regulations: What do They Mean for Plastics Recycling? April 17:...

City leaders have voted to prohibit Baltimore restaurants from providing expanded polystyrene foodservice items. The Baltimore City Council on March 12 voted to approve an ordinance banning foam cups, plates, bowls, trays, clamshells and similar items starting 18 months after the law is enacted. The Baltimore Sun reported that Mayor Catherine Pugh, whose signature is needed to enact the law,...

The group that runs Oregon's container deposit program announced it will donate unredeemed deposit money to charitable purposes if the redemption rate for containers drops below 80 percent. The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) manages almost all containers redeemed through the state's deposit program. OBRC uses the value of unredeemed containers to help fund the collection and recycling of bottles...

A smelter owned by metals company Boliden processed 77,000 metric tons of scrap electronics last year, down 6 percent from the year before, according to recently released data. Boliden, a mining and smelting giant with facilities across Northern Europe, operates the Rönnskär smelter in Sweden. The facility began processing metals-containing components of e-scrap in 2012, making the company among the...