A trial program in Europe is exploring more efficient ways of recovering a range of raw materials from used electronics and appliances. The project will focus on recovering gold, platinum, antimony, cobalt, graphite and other elements from small appliances and household electronics.The Critical Raw Material Recovery project includes trial collection programs for e-scrap, including retailer take-back systems and drop-off collection...

A report from consulting firm Trucost found the environmental cost of using plastics in packaging is four times less than that of using aluminum, tin, glass or paper. The study, paid for and overseen by the American Chemistry Council, found that substituting alternative materials for plastics in packaging would increase annual environmental costs from $139 billion to $533 billion. The...

The Centralized Study on Availability of Recycling started as a report to examine recycling acceptance rates for certain types of packaging. That narrow focus morphed into a comprehensive study regarding the larger issue of recycling accessibility in America. The report, conducted by The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), includes data from 2,000 communities, both big and small, urban and rural. According...

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) recently released a comprehensive study on the availability of recycling in America to help promote change among industry players. Here are five key takeaways from the recycling accessibility report from Adam Gendell, associate director of SPC, which is a project of GreenBlue, the organization behind the How2Recycle labels. 1. What is the biggest surprise from...

Outerwall, the parent of electronics trade-in company ecoATM, is merging with a private equity firm and will no longer be a publicly traded company. Apollo Global Management is buying Outerwall for $52 per share, in a deal worth $1.6 billion.The merger comes after months of financial uncertainty for Bellevue, Wash.-based Outerwall. Its ecoATM division has failed to make a profit...

California officials are inviting industry players to participate in a survey regarding possible changes to the state's e-scrap recycling program. The first section of the survey from CalRecycle, the agency that manages California's e-scrap program, asks if the priorities of the law should be reevaluated and reprioritized.The survey also asks whether certain aspects of a rewritten law would be helpful...

A five-year-old plastics recycling equipment company based in Vermont is focusing its products on the layperson and filling a void in the recycling world. Tyler McNaney started Filabot in 2011, during his first semester in college. His small-scale machines turn used plastic into feedstock for 3-D printers. Filabot sells extruders and grinders in multiple sizes: grinders for bigger volumes of...

The San Diego City Council has voted to ban plastic bags at large grocery stores, pharmacies and other markets, making San Diego the 150th municipality in California to limit use of the items. Once the ban takes effect, large grocery stores will have six months to comply, while smaller convenience stores will have a year. After that grace period, stores...

Building owners in Chicago could pay hefty fines for not following the city’s recycling ordinance. Last week the Chicago City Council updated the 20-year-old ordinance to incorporate enforcement policies and to get the City’s recycling plan in line with industry standards. The amended ordinance requires all multi-unit residential, commercial and office buildings to provide single-stream service for recyclable materials. According...

In an attempt to steer coffee cups away from landfills, Starbucks stores in the U.K. are testing a cup that bills itself as easily recyclable. The cup comes from U.K.-based manufacturer Frugalpac. It's made with a plastic liner that is designed to be easily removable from the paper cup at the pulping mill. Frugalpac describes the process on its website,...