Colin Staub has been a reporter at Resource Recycling since January 2017. Before that he worked as a reporter at the weekly newspaper in Newberg, Oregon, and has been a freelance writer at other publications in Portland. He can be contacted at [email protected]
Nestlé pledged to buy up to 2 million metric tons of food-grade recycled plastics over the next five years. | Formatoriginal/Shutterstock
Nestlé says it will buy a huge quantity of food-grade recycled resin over the next five years. A company leader explained why the brand owner is committing to use recycled plastic despite its higher cost.
China will ban the sale of plastic bags in certain areas, stepping up to a complete ban nationwide by 2025. | olesea vetrila/Shutterstock
After shaking up the U.S. recycling sector with an import ban on post-consumer plastics, the Chinese government is taking aim at its own plastic waste generation.
No U.S. state currently has an EPR law in place for packaging. | Yurii Prohonnyi/Shutterstock
Maine legislators are gearing up to introduce a bill that would mandate producers to fund the recycling of packaging they put on the market. The plan calls for different requirements based on whether a packaging type is “readily recyclable.”
The collection program was made possible through a nearly $39,000 grant from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. | eleonimages/Shutterstock
A state grant will enable a four-month pilot agricultural film recycling program in the Northeast.
In April, the Chinese government will enact new requirements for pellet imports. | Piyathep/Shutterstock
Officials in Beijing are set to enact new requirements around the purity of recycled pellets imported into China.
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Through the Bradley Beach, N.J. partnership, SC Johnson is providing financial support to assist with infrastructure costs. | Courtesy of SC Johnson
SC Johnson recently launched a pilot curbside film collection program in a small New Jersey community. Rather than mix film into existing single-stream recycling, the program has residents use a dedicated container.
The development of a new domestic e-plastics outlet comes at a time of market turbulence for the low-value materials. | KPixMining/Shutterstock
An Indiana plastics processing operation will consume roughly 40 million pounds of plastic from e-scrap and other products annually. Brightmark Energy plans to start up the facility in mid-2020.
Tomra’s GAIN system can be used on a conveyor belt traveling up to 3 meters per second.
Tomra Sorting Recycling has launched a feature to help boost capabilities of optical sorters in the company’s Autosort line.
Resin sales for plastic bottle production grew to nearly 9.9 billion pounds in 2018. | Wachiwit/Shutterstock
More plastic bottles were recycled in 2018 than the prior year. But because of an overall bottle production increase, the recycling rate fell.
In October, India’s imports of U.S. scrap plastics dropped to their lowest single-month volume since at least 2002. | November Studio/Shutterstock
Export figures continue to show the power of recycled plastic import restrictions in Southeast Asia. Countries that were previously the largest overseas markets have seen massive decreases in U.S. plastic imports since mid-2018.