In This Issue:

1 | American Beverage Association sues Michigan

An amendment to Michigan's bottle bill aimed at avoiding beverage container redemption fraud, like that seen recently in California, has prompted a lawsuit by the beverage industry.

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2 | Packaging industry launches AMERIPEN

Several of the largest corporations in the U.S. came together to announce the American Institution for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN) on March 7, promising to encourage policy guidance and "science-based decision-making on sustainable packaging."

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3 | California bill cracks down on degradability claims

A bill has been introduced in the California Legislature that will dramatically change manufacturers' ability to claim that their plastic products will naturally dissolve back into the Earth after being thrown away.

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4 | ASTM wants your opinion on resin codes

The American Society for Testing and Materials needs to understand how the codes are used by the industry on the front lines of plastics sorting, converting, and marketing. Is a coding system still useful or is it a legacy system not much used anymore? Is it useful as a physical label on products? Or is it useful simply as standardized terminology for communicating between industry players? How could the codes be improved to better help you perform your work?

These are the types of questions asked in a survey developed by ASTM to gather data on the experiences and opinions of MRF operators, processors, reclaimers, converters and brokers with regard to the plastic resin identification coding system. Data collection will take place until April 1st and the results will be presented at the next meeting of the ASTM Plastics Committee in Anaheim, California on April 10-13.

To offer your input on potential revisions to the resin coding system, visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/RIC-survey or click the banner below.

5 | Coke's recycled content target spurs new UK facility

Coca-Cola Enterprises and UK plastics recycling firm ECO Plastics have launched a joint venture to build the largest PET bottle recycling plant in Europe.

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6 | Shipping costs to rise

Recycling processors and end users can expect to pay more for moving materials to market.

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7 | Reports of recycling's death in Wisconsin may be premature

Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, has proposed cutting funding and mandates that help recycling programs across the state as part of his plan to gut the state budget by $2.5 billion. However, a member of his own party who occupies an important position in the legislature isn't fully embracing his proposal.

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8 | Patent watch

A round up of recent patents relating to plastics recycling.

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9 | NewsBits

Iowa's bottle bill repeal fails, updates on RecycleBank and other stories in this week's NewsBits.

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10 | Upcoming conferences

Click here for a complete directory of upcoming conferences!

11 | Jobs Available & Sought

VP Sales and Marketing, Omni Resource Recovery, Inc..
Details are available here.

Service and Repair Technician, Steinert US.
Details are available here.

Service Manager, Steinert US.
Details are available here.

Plastics Business Development, Continental Waste Management LLC (Raleigh, North Carolina).
Details are available here.

PET Procurement Specialist, Perpetual Recycling Solutions (Richmond, Indiana).
Details are available here.

Regional Manager, Steinert US.
Details are available here.

Jobs Sought
Database of job seekers available here.

If you would like to submit a job available or job sought listing, send an email to newsletter editor Henry Leineweber at [email protected].