Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Martin Bourque of the Berkeley, California-based Ecology Center spoke about challenges in plastics recycling during a short film produced for the Alliance for Mission Based Recycling. | YouTube
MRF operators linked by an organizational belief that recycling is just one part of materials management recently hosted a film screening and discussion that touched on policy, chemical recycling and the nuances of alternative collection systems like TerraCycle and Ridwell.
Recovered plastic exports out of the U.S. totaled 481 million pounds in the first half of the year, up about 1% from 475 million pounds during the same period in 2023. | Menzl_Guenter/Shutterstock
More than half the recovered scrap plastic that left the U.S. during the first half of 2024 stayed in North America, as Canada and Mexico continued to be the largest buyers of U.S. material. Continue Reading
As of 2023, 61% of Mars packaging is designed to be recyclable, reusable or compostable, up from 57% in 2022 but significantly short of 100% by 2025, and the company used an average of 1.5% recycled content across its packaging portfolio, significantly short of 30% by 2025. | MarsMM/Shutterstock
Brand owner Mars says the design and infrastructure changes that are needed to meet its recycling goals are “taking longer than we anticipated” – and that it will miss certain goals it set for 2025.
Eastman’s Kingsport, Tennessee plant uses methanolysis to chemically recycle PET. | Monticello/Shutterstock
In their latest earnings call, Eastman representatives said the company’s chemical recycling facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, is ramping up to 100% capacity and is gearing up to take in a “broader set” of uncommonly recycled plastics. Continue Reading
The Responsible Recycling Alliance is calling for California lawmakers to abandon Senate Bill 1053, which would expand the state’s bag ban to prohibit reusable bags made from 40% post-consumer resin. | Huguette Roe/Shutterstock
Seeking to quash a regulatory change that would remove over 100 million pounds of North American post-consumer resin demand per year, EFS-Plastics, Merlin Plastics and PreZero US have joined together to advocate for retaining recycled-content reusable plastic bags in California’s bag regulations. Continue Reading
PepsiCo recently announced it will fall short of its 2025 goal to make 100% of its plastic packaging recoverable or reusable.| Pixinoo/Shutterstock
In recent weeks and months, disclosures by consumer goods giant PepsiCo and resin producer Shell have indicated the companies will either miss targets or adjust timelines to meet plastics recycling-related goals. Meanwhile, Nestle has received media scrutiny for changing how it describes its goals, even as it continues to make progress toward those targets. Continue Reading
The Eureka Recycling MRF in Minneapolis will install several Machinex optical sorters in response to an increase in smaller plastic containers that have challenged the MRF’s ability to maintain quality. | Courtesy of Eureka Recycling
Minneapolis nonprofit MRF operator Eureka Recycling is seeing larger volumes of smaller plastics coming through its doors, creating challenges to maintain the same level of material quality. These changes spurred the company to plan substantial facility upgrades, a co-president said this week. Continue Reading
Fabrizio Di Gregorio, technical director for Plastics Recyclers Europe, Roxanne Spiekerman, vice president of public affairs for PreZero US, and Lou Fenech, North America packaging sustainability manager for Mondelēz International, talked about challenges to recycling flexible packaging at the 2024 Plastics Recycling Conference. | Big Wave Productions/Plastics Recycling Update
Increasing film recycling takes coordinated efforts by both brand owners and reclaimers – and it takes a true understanding that one sector can’t solve the issue alone, speakers said at the 2024 Plastics Recycling Conference in March.
Panelists said the playbook that increased renewable energy usage in the U.S. could be used to improve recycling, too. | PhilipR/Shutterstock
At a meeting of Oregon materials recovery stakeholders last week, two plastics recycling experts had a blunt message for attendees: Plastics recycling is in trouble. Continue Reading
The “Plastic Free Packaging Design Guide” focuses on how Google has moved toward fiber-based packaging and away from plastics in its consumer electronics products. | Tada Images/Shutterstock
Google this month published a comprehensive look at how the company has approached designing its packaging for minimal plastic use. In publicly detailing its methodology, the major corporation laid out a philosophy that “sustainability should be a collaborative endeavor, not a competitive one.” Continue Reading