Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
The U.S. exported 1.46 billion pounds of scrap plastics in 2019, down 38% from the year before. | qingqing/Shutterstock
Scrap plastic exports from the U.S. continued a steady decrease that has unfolded over the past few years, dropping in 2019 to their lowest total volume since 2002.
The legislation includes a national bottle bill, which experts say would significantly boost the container recycling rate. | Orhan Cam/Shutterstock
Two federal legislators have introduced a comprehensive waste management and recycling support bill. This week, they shared details about the legislation and expressed optimism that it will garner bipartisan support.
How2Recycle announced that all PP tubs, trays, bottles and cups will now be labeled with the organization’s “check locally” label. | Josep Curto/Shutterstock
Changes in U.S. recycling programs led the How2Recycle labeling initiative to downgrade recyclability classifications for non-bottle rigid PET containers and certain PP products, potentially impacting recovery of those materials.
Bag producers pledged to support municipal programs in educating the public on proper bag recycling. | Ivanova Tetyana/Shutterstock
A coalition of bag manufacturers is committing to use more recycled plastic in the coming years. Recycling stakeholders are reacting to the pledge, which will include both post-consumer and post-industrial resin.
The grant funds come as Dallas this month rolled out a multi-family recycling ordinance. | Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
A coalition of industry stakeholders will invest in recycling improvements in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, anticipating the projects will capture an additional 3 million pounds of PET per year.
The new NERC report includes 15 new and 10 expanding facilities processing recycled plastics in North America. | Warut Chinsai/Shutterstock
The North American plastics recycling sector is poised to add over 1 billion pounds of annual capacity, according to a group charting processing growth.
Projects that improve polypropylene packaging recovery are eligible for substantial financial support from the Closed Loop Fund.
MBA Polymers’ U.K. and China operations have been sold to a German equity fund, and the plastics reclaimer’s Austrian branch has been bought out by its longtime co-owner.
Separation equipment from SICON aims to facilitate increased recovery of valuable raw materials from mixed thermoplastic streams.
Credit: Riverview Photography
A viable end market is crucial to effective materials recovery, and in the plastics realm, those downstream uses are growing increasingly diverse.