Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Amcor averaged 9.4% PCR across its packaging portfolio in 2024, putting the company on track to reach its 2025 goal of 10%. | Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
Global packaging firm Amcor recently announced it is installing new equipment at a Kentucky facility that allows the company to produce packaging with a wider variety of post-consumer resin percentages, citing demand from the company’s spirits customers. Continue Reading
The plan includes additional information on how currently non-recyclable packaging will be brought into the program by 2030. | Natallia-Boroda/Shutterstock
Circular Action Alliance has submitted an amended program plan for meeting Colorado’s extended producer responsibility regulations for packaging. Public comment will open later this summer. Continue Reading
Although extended producer responsibility is poised to capture substantially more material, The Recycling Partnership’s CEO says it’s important to ensure that material has an end market. | New Africa/Shutterstock
Backed by major brands, The Recycling Partnership has become well-known in the materials recovery sector over the past decade for boosting access to recycling, in particular by helping municipalities roll out recycling carts, improve outreach and reduce contamination. Continue Reading
Two dozen plastics producers were penalized for failing to use the minimum recycled content required in Washington state. | Emilija Miljkovic/Shutterstock
Plastics producers who failed to meet Washington state’s minimum post-consumer resin threshold were recently hit with fines ranging from a couple hundred dollars up to $55,000. Continue Reading
A judge favored Brightmark’s parent company over a slightly higher bid, preferring Brightmark’s plan to keep the facility operating over the competing bid’s liquidation plan. | Photo courtesy of Brightmark
Brightmark’s bankrupt Indiana pyrolysis facility has been sold to parent company Brightmark for $14.3 million in a move that will keep the facility operating and retain most or all of its more than 100 employees, a judge ruled this month. The latest development came after a competitive auction process with plenty of twists and turns.
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PepsiCo will now shoot for 40% global recycled plastic use by 2035, instead of 50% by 2030. | FotograFFF/Shutterstock
Citing factors outside the company’s control, brand giant PepsiCo has softened its global post-consumer recycled content target and given itself more time to achieve the goal. Continue Reading
A technology-focused panel at ReMA’s 2025 conference featured Blake Gordon of Georgia-Pacific Recycling, Lisa Kagan of Buddy and Geoff Aardsma of AMCS, and was moderated by Jennifer Betts of Magnar Metals. | Photo by Colin Staub / Resource Recycling
For Blake Gordon, general manager of digital trading at Georgia-Pacific Recycling, defining next-generation technology can be boiled down to a simple question: Does it simplify something that is unnecessarily complex? If so, it’s next-gen. Continue Reading
The safety-focused summit came after the latest federal data showed a backslide in waste and recycling industry safety. | Sirisak baokaew/Shutterstock
As recycling companies seek to improve workplace safety amid an industry-wide increase in on-the-job fatalities, experts at a recent industry summit advised managers to focus their attention on — and for top executives, even to attend — the regular pre-shift safety meetings.
A secondary sorting facility pulling deposit containers out of mixed plastic bales was awarded funding from the state of California. | Hiv360/Shutterstock
California’s state recycling agency will provide $10 million toward a facility sorting plastics with resin codes 2-7, additional multimillion dollar grants for several major MRF retrofits, and a handful of smaller awards for localities to install recycling collection containers. Continue Reading
Extended producer responsibility was a hot topic throughout the three-day event held in Seattle last week. | Photo Courtesy of GreenBlue Org
A common complaint among MRF operators is that they have little meaningful contact with the packaging industry, despite dealing with headaches from that industry’s products every single day. Continue Reading