Manufacturers will voluntarily subsidize post-consumer carpet sortation for an additional year. The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) and the Carpet and Rug Institute recently announced the extension of the nearly two-year-old voluntary product stewardship (VPS) program. Originally started in 2015, the program was set to expire at the end of 2016. It will now expire at the end of 2017....

A startup is using robotics, artificial intelligence and the cloud to combat recycling contamination at one of its sources: public collection bins. Pittsburgh-based CleanRobotics developed a robotic receptacle that automatically senses and sorts materials into either a landfill-bound garbage can or single-stream recycling bin. The Trashbot, as it's called, uses a variety of sensors to keep non-recyclable materials out of...

Scientific developments that could open up a market for recycled EPS came not from chemists in academia or a large corporation. Instead, the breakthroughs were developed by three dedicated 14-year-olds in 8th grade in Columbus, Ohio. Ashton Cofer, Luke Clay and Julia Bray developed a way to recycle EPS into activated carbon for use as a water filtration medium. The...

Students attending New Orleans-area universities this week accepted scholarships from the National Recycling Coalition. NRC provided each of the four students with $1,500 scholarships, a tradition dating back more than two decades. This year, the following students received scholarships: Kia Barnes, studying environmental science at Dillard University Sage Leopold, studying environmental studies at Tulane University Jessica Meyer, studying biology at...

A filter from Nordson Polymer Processing Systems approaches the task of removing contaminants from a melt stream in a unique way, reducing melt loss and extending the filter life. Instead of sending a stream of melted plastic straight through a screen to remove contaminants, the BKG HiCon R-Type 250 tackles highly contaminated PE, PP and PS streams with a rotating...

An improvement in virgin feedstocks allows better performance in recycled-content HDPE products, and two companies cooperate to supply a continuous PET-to-textile-fibers line. Improved HDPE: Total Refining & Chemicals has developed an enhanced virgin HDPE meant to be compounded with recycled plastic because it is able to over-compensate for any deficiencies in the recycled resin. Beveragedaily.com reports on the advancement, which...

International labels company UPM Raflatac has been in the news for its work developing recycling-friendly labels for beverage containers. The August edition of Plastics Recycling Update magazine includes a feature story on the in-depth testing conducted on the company's new full-wrap shrink sleeve label, called RafShrink PO MDO 40 HS. The testing found the label allows optical sorters to correctly...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for a U.S. company to recycle PP and HDPE buckets and lids into food packaging. It also signed off on a Japanese company's plan to recycle expanded polystyrene (EPS) trays into new PS food trays. Those were two of the "go-aheads" included in letters of no objection (LNOs) issued by the...

Imagine a lump of sugar dissolving in coffee – Solenne Brouard uses that image to describe the first step in her company's expanded polystyrene recycling process. Now image the sugar is later extracted from the coffee, formed into pellets and sold right back into the fresh sugar market, without any discoloration or quality tradeoffs. That's how one might liken the...

A recent bankruptcy petition and lawsuit from investors highlight the continuing troubles facing closed e-scrap company Diversified Recycling. In addition, E-Scrap News has learned Diversified, which was based in the southeast U.S., has roughly 500,000 pounds of CRT devices still on hand.In 2015, Basel Action Network (BAN) suspended Diversified from applying for e-Stewards certification for two years. BAN, which founded...