The National Recycling Coalition has announced the inaugural Sustainable Materials Management Summit. Slated to take place May 12-13 at University of Maryland, College Park, the Summit will aim to foster a broader national dialogue on the topic, said NRC's board president, Mark Lichtenstein. "Ultimately we want to accelerate sustainable materials management (SMM) as a method of choice for avoiding the...

A newly formed group of recycling organizations and stakeholders is weighing in on the effects of mixed waste processing on recycling. "Coalition members know that a facility processing waste and recyclables mixed together, known as a dirty MRF, will not improve and may harm recycling," the policy statement from the newly formed Recycling Industries Coalition (RIC) reads. RIC is made...

A second study from manufacturers of food packaging aims to drive home the point that the products from those companies are not too contaminated for curbside recycling. The recently conducted effort from the Foodservice Packaging Institute follows the first segment of the report, which was released at the end of last year. The latest research looked at a sampling of...

The beverage container recycling arm of The Coca-Cola Company – Coca-Cola Recycling – is "winding down," the company today confirmed. When asked for comment, Sheree Robinson, communications manager for Coca-Cola North America, said "yes, we are winding down Coca-Cola Recycling, LLC" and offered the following statement: The Coca-Cola Company’s current goal is to lead the industry in packaging sustainability including...

The leaders of the e-Stewards certification today unveiled an online tool that aims to push more material through certified firms. Going live today, e-Stewards Marketplace functions as a virtual exchange for e-scrap. Firms certified to the e-Stewards standard can use the tool to buy and sell e-scrap, with non-certified firms allowed to sell material as well. The Marketplace website was...

A working group has identified a series of recycling-friendly design tips for manufacturers of full-wrap shrink sleeve labels. Importantly, the suggestions, put forward by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) Shrink Label Working Group in a new report, won't ask label makers to ditch the full-wrap concept altogether. Instead, the working group says it has arrived at some design...

The National Recycling Coalition has voted 10 board members into the fold. Elections for the board were held during the 2014 Resource Recycling Conference in New Orleans. The new and re-elected members, listed below, will each serve 3-year terms: Gary Bilbro, president, NewGreen Consulting LLC Jack DeBell, development director, University of Colorado Recycling John Frederick, executive director, Intermunicipal Relations Committee...

Houston may not ultimately implement its controversial One Bin for All system, a plan that calls for residents to toss garbage and recyclables in a single curbside cart for later sortation. Speaking on a panel at last week's WasteCon conference in Grapevine, Texas, Houston's director of solid waste said the city remains "in the midst of evaluation," and he said...

An alternative lumber company that's recently seen financial success is set to sell recycled plastic resin. Trex, the publicly traded firm popular for making decks and rails out of a composite of recycled wood and reclaimed plastic bags, says sales from recycled polyethylene resin pellets will bring an additional $50 million to $80 million in annual sales to the company...

A just-released federal report sheds light on the numerous occupational health and safety dangers that likely exist at e-scrap firms throughout the country. The report, released this month by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), shares findings from a series of site visits conducted between 2012 and 2013 at the request of an undisclosed e-scrap firm in...