Retailers collecting select polyethylene bags for recycling worry that accepting other types of PE film will open the door to contamination. But when the Wrap Recycling Action Program (WRAP) began accepting all PE films at Safeway stores in Clark County, Wash., the fear proved unfounded. A later study found collection volumes increased by 125 percent there, but contamination only notched...

A Maine-based company that offers an automated system for collecting containers and redeeming deposits is extending its reach. Clynk currently employs its service and technology in 49 Hannaford supermarkets in Maine. It recently announced it was opening 51 new drop locations at Hannaford stores in the greater Albany and Schenectady areas of New York. Maine law puts a 5-cent deposit...

Labels and packaging company Avery Dennison has expanded the options available to converters and brand owners looking to put recycling-friendly pressure-sensitive labels on PET containers. The Glendale, Calif.-based company produces what it calls its CleanFlake Portfolio of label adhesives. Introduced in 2012, the water-based adhesive technology is meant to wash off cleanly from containers in float-sink tanks, ensuring the PET...

Expanding and extending tax credits for biogas would help spur investments in anaerobic digestion and related composting technologies, the CEO of Bulk Handling Systems told U.S. senators last week. Steve Miller, CEO of Eugene, Ore.-based BHS, spoke on June 14 at a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing on energy tax policy. Recycling equipment manufacturer BHS is involved in anaerobic digestion...

Ontario lawmakers last week passed a bill mandating producers to pay the full costs of recycling printed paper and packaging. However, many specifics of the recovery system, which will target a wide range of plastic products, have yet to be determined. The Ontario Legislative Assembly on June 1 approved the Waste-Free Ontario Act, or Bill 151, after months of consideration...

A bill winding its way through the North Carolina legislature would eliminate the state's six-year-old e-scrap recycling system and prohibition on landfilling electronics. House Bill 169 would relieve electronics manufacturers of extended producer responsibility obligations in the state of 10 million people. It would also lift a ban on landfilling or incinerating TVs and computer equipment.The provisions are included in...

Through its use of a catalyst in a patented process, a Canadian company is recycling PE and PP into a variety of industrial waxes. The technology employed by Brantford, Ontario-based GreenMantra Technologies could provide a valuable market for plastics that are hard to mechanically recycle. "This is now a potential technology that can get out of the re-introduction into the...

Through its use of a catalyst in a patented process, a Canadian company is recycling PE and PP into a variety of industrial waxes.

China's Green Fence import crackdown made it more difficult – and less profitable – for FCM Recycling to ship e-scrap plastics to Asia. So the Canadian electronics recycling company went into the plastics recycling business.

A southeast U.S. e-scrap company that recently filed for bankruptcy says it is out of cash and has CRT devices on hand, although the exact volume of material is unclear. Orlando, Fla.-headquartered Diversified Asset Recovery on May 10 voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, through which assets are liquidated to pay creditors.Downstream allegations The processor's struggles have been noted for...