A California bill mandating that carpet stewards achieve a 24 percent recycling rate continues to advance in the legislature. Meanwhile, carpet makers are sticking with their beleaguered stewardship group, instead of submitting alternative collection and recycling plans. Earlier this year, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) rejected a proposed carpet recycling plan submitted by the Carpet America...

Anti-incineration activists have released a report criticizing efforts to burn waste in the U.S., calling them misguided attempts to achieve sustainability. The report, entitled "Green businesses and cities at risk: How your waste management plan may be leading you in the wrong direction," was released by GAIA, an international environmental network, and the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The...

Though overall revenue fell, profits at global e-scrap company Sims Recycling Solutions grew significantly last year, according to the firm's latest financial filings. Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS), the electronics recycling arm of Australia-based scrap metal company Sims Metal Management, contributed earnings of 20 million Australian dollars (nearly $16 million USD) during the 2017 fiscal year. That was up from the...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will allow recycled PET fiber to be used to make tea bags, fruit or meat packaging and more. It also gave the go-ahead to use recycled plastics in several types of thermoform packaging. Those announcements came in various letters of no objection (LNOs) issued by the agency since the beginning of the year. In...

Chemicals giant Dow has developed an adhesive that allows flexible film packaging with layers of PET and aluminum to be replaced by all-polyolefin films, which are easier to recycle. The chemical company’s ADCOTE L86-500 barrier adhesive would allow a coffee pouch made from layers of PET/aluminum/PE to be replaced by BOPP/metallized BOPP/PE, said Uta Ünal, business communications manager for the...

Recycling decisions tend to be made on the local level by nonpartisan leaders, but national politics - and fundamental ideological differences - still shape the dialogue. A recent study of local government agendas showed stark differences between left-leaning and right-leaning communities when it comes to action around materials diversion. "It was interesting that one (blue) California city referenced its diversion...

This story originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of Plastics Recycling Update. Subscribe today for access to all print content. The story of Birch Plastics has been one of branching out. What started in 2001 as a plastics trader operating out of a 5,000-square-foot building is, today, one of the country’s largest post-industrial plastics recycling operations. And Birch is...

Hong Kong courts convicted seven importers of illegally bringing in e-scrap from several countries. The U.S. was on the list of exporting countries. According to a recent press release from the Hong Kong government, a court on Aug. 22 convicted and fined three importers and two recycling site operators. Environmental Protection Department (EPD) and Customs and Excise Department agents intercepted...

An initiative in Europe will work to overcome obstacles to the closed-loop recycling of plastics from electronics and appliances. The Post-Consumer High-tech Recycled Polymers for a Circular Economy (PolyCE) project will undertake various activities to strengthen the recovery of plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). While still a negative or negligible value for many electronics recycling companies, e-plastics...

Last year, lawmakers failed to pass legislation reforming Pennsylvania’s electronics recycling program. With the introduction of a bipartisan bill this year, some of them want to take another go at it. Republican state Rep. Christopher Quinn recently introduced House Bill 1736, which is similar to legislation that failed to advance during the 2015-16 session. The goal is to restart the...