Coca-Cola and several other major companies recently invested millions of dollars to push forward a nascent resin called PEF, and the move raises questions about the composition of the plastics recycling stream in the decades to come. The $50 million in funding, announced earlier this month, aims to help a Dutch research and technology company called Avantium further develop a...

The company that purchased a pair of plastics recycling firms this week says its move was driven by increasing demand for recycled content in the packaging space. Atlanta-based Consolidated Containers Company (CCC) announced Tuesday it had acquired Envision Plastics and Ecoplast Corporation, separate recycling companies that had common ownership. Both firms have a significant presence in the plastics recycling sector —...

Want evidence of how difficult it is to craft effective statewide laws for the rapidly evolving e-scrap landscape? Just look to New Jersey and the collection quagmire that's unfolded there. According to a state official and various e-scrap stakeholders in the Garden State, materials recovered under the state's e-cycling law have piled up at some collection sites in recent months,...

The leader of a key House environmental subcommittee said a much-discussed federal bill limiting e-scrap exports will not be taken up in the current Congress. In a meeting with the Institute of the Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said HR-2791, also known as the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act or RERA, was not on his subcommittee's agenda. Shimkus...

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has formed a group to promote plastics-to-oil technology, which a number of firms have been exploring to monetize material, including e-plastics, that would otherwise be sent to landfills. Housed inside ACC's Plastics Division, the Plastics-to-Oil Technologies Alliance will work to support public policy and awareness efforts within the plastics-to-oil landscape. The group's founding members include...

Fresh details have emerged about the push by plastics players to halt a proposed ban on foodservice EPS containers in New York City. An article in The New York Times on Dec. 8 helped bring the foam fight further into the consciousness of New York's masses and noted that the City Council will likely vote on the legislation by the end of...

New York City's initiatives to improve residential recycling have made plenty of headlines of late, but a recent report is urging Big Apple leaders to focus more on the commercial sector. "Transform Don't Trash NYC," created by community organizing group Alliance for a Greater New York, states that 90 percent of discarded material from restaurants and other businesses in the...

One of the country's largest corrugated packaging companies announced plans to open a recycled paperboard mill next to its existing box manufacturing operation in Valparaiso, Indiana. Georgia-based Pratt Industries will lay out $260 million on the new mill and claims the operation will bring nearly 140 jobs to northwest Indiana. Construction is expected to be completed by July 2015, and...

When the National Recycling Coalition recently awarded three $1,500 scholarships to sustainability-minded college students, the group carried on a tradition that's now two decades in the making. The first NRC scholarship was awarded in 1993 after NRC leader Murray Fox pushed the group to set up a system to support future industry decision makers. While scholarships were not awarded one...

A unique project aimed at modernizing the way consumers relate to recycling was named the winner of the inaugural Recycling Innovators Forum, held in conjunction with this week's Resource Recycling Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. For photos of the event, click here. The group behind the winning effort, Earth911, Inc., received a $20,000 honorarium to help bring the project to market....