CalRecycle last week convened stakeholders to continue to discuss the possibility of requiring producers to play a role in the end-of-life management of packaging materials. The meeting covered components that could be included in such a program and included robust debate about the merits of extended producer responsibility (EPR) efforts. Officials with the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) stressed...

Former employees of the U.S. EPA have attacked Donald Trump's funding proposals and unearthed documents showing the administration wants to chop the agency's recycling and waste reduction efforts by 20 percent. President Trump's budget blueprint, released this month, proposes a 31 percent cut to EPA as a whole in fiscal year 2018, reducing its staff by 3,200 positions. The shock...

A tech startup is developing a new product to verify trustworthiness among traders of plastic scrap and other recyclable materials. Scrap Connection plans to offer reports on companies in the scrap materials trading industry, using information gleaned from confidential reviews from former customers. Scrap Connection will assign companies an overall “trade score.” “The problem in our industry really has to...

Former employees of the U.S. EPA have attacked Donald Trump's funding proposals and unearthed documents showing the administration wants to chop the agency's recycling and waste reduction efforts by 20 percent. President Trump's budget blueprint, released this month, proposes a 31 percent cut to EPA as a whole in fiscal year 2018, reducing its staff by 3,200 positions. The shock...

Oregon's bottle deposit program has begun accepting used glass bottles for refilling. Portland-area bottle redemption centers operated by the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) now accept bottles from Double Mountain Brewery, and OBRC hopes to attract more breweries to use refillable bottles. The containers are washed before they're returned to the brewery for refilling. The pilot program was first announced...

CalRecycle last week convened stakeholders to continue to discuss the possibility of requiring producers to play a role in the end-of-life management of packaging materials. The meeting covered components that could be included in such a program and included robust debate about the merits of extended producer responsibility (EPR) efforts. Officials with the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) stressed...

A tech startup is developing a new product to verify trustworthiness among traders of electronic scrap and other recyclable materials. Scrap Connection plans to offer reports on companies in the scrap materials trading industry, using information gleaned from confidential reviews from former customers. Scrap Connection will assign companies an overall "trade score." "The problem in our industry really has to...

HP Inc. has joined two other electronics manufacturers in publicly identifying the recycling companies it contracts with to handle material. This month, the consumer electronics giant released a list of three dozen recycling facilities around the world where its materials are sent for reuse or recycling. The list also names a handful of organizations that manage recycling programs, including state recycling...

On the heels of losing a legal battle, a Houston plastics recycling company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, indicating it owes more than $4.1 million to creditors. Covenant Plastics, a 22-year-old company that recycles post-industrial plastics, stated its assets total about $3 million while its liabilities come to more than $4.1 million. The vast majority, more than $3.5 million,...

Climbing recycled paper prices contributed to the recent idling or closure of two newsprint mills, one in North America and one in Asia. Resolute Forest Products announced March 10 it would shutter its Thorold, Ontario mill, taking more than 215,000 tons of newsprint production capacity off-line and leaving more than 100 workers without a job. The mill uses 100 percent...