The Canadian city of Edmonton has been forced to eat its paper-recycling investment – millions of dollars – after the company it partnered with went bankrupt and no other firms stepped up to take over the plant. After months of consideration, the Edmonton City Council on Nov. 8 voted to sell the assets of Greys Paper Recycling Facility and place...

This story originally appeared in the October 2016 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content. How do we ensure forward progress when it comes to recycling? How do cities and companies successfully inform residents and partners they are on the right track? For many, part of the answer is goal-setting, and over the course of...

Every day, nonprofit organizations around the country are refurbishing computers and donating many of them to underserved populations. Until the formation of the Alliance for Technology Refurbishing and Reuse (AFTRR), a lot of these groups didn't know how to connect with other like-minded organizations. AFTRR is a project of the National Cristina Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) foundation that supports the...

A business based in the Pacific Northwest is emphasizing the "mobile" in mobile device repair. Portland, Ore.-based iFix King brings its repair lab to the customer, fixing electronics on the spot. The iFix King business model is a relatively new one being tested in the phone repair market: bringing the service to the customer. It has advantages and drawbacks, just...

The City of Redding, Calif., will soon add a densifier to its recycling facility, allowing residents to drop off foam polystyrene for processing. The City will use grant money from the Foam Recycling Coalition to make the purchase. The grant is for $49,000. The densifier will allow the City to accept protective expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging, as well as food-service...

A national nonprofit organization that helps municipalities improve their recycling programs has brought Dart Container Corporation on board as a funding source. Dart is the 25th funding partner for The Recycling Partnership. With the help of its funding partners, The Recycling Partnership is able to, among other things, support cities that want to provide new roll-out carts to households, often...

A coalition of public and private partners have formed the Ontario Circular Economy Innovation Lab (CEIL), an effort to coordinate recycling and packaging stakeholders. CEIL will use a process called the Sustainability Transition Lab to generate ideas, public policy recommendations, and even new products. The first such lab will be focused on printed paper and packaging: things like brochures, catalogs,...

A Denver-based recycling and waste collection company is now sending broken glass from its materials recovery facility to a specialized glass processing facility instead of disposal. Alpine Waste & Recycling recently made $150,000 worth of upgrades to its MRF to better separate smaller pieces of broken glass from other recyclables. It installed two conveyors and a blower and is sending...

The market for refurbished electronic devices is growing and that means more players are entering the supply chain. With that can come more risk, not just for companies buying inventory to repair, but for everyone in the chain. That is why it is vitally important to adhere to the fundamentals of a good deal, said Adam Cirrone, customer success director...

Three European companies have joined together to create the Plastic Road, a concept that uses recycled plastic instead of asphalt to create lightweight, modular roadways. According to the announcement, Plastic Road was introduced in 2015 by KWS, a Dutch contractor that specializes in infrastructure projects. Plastic Road is prefabricated and hollow, allowing space for cables and pipes. The hollow space...