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Author Archives: Colin Staub

About Colin Staub

Colin-StaubColin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Companies miss or modify recycling-related goals

Published: July 24, 2024
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Row of Pepsi bottles on a supermarket shelf.

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

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Eureka upgrades to tackle increase in small plastics

Published: July 24, 2024
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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

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Dispelling ‘silver bullet’ thinking in film recycling

Published: July 17, 2024
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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.

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Tech giant pens detailed ‘plastic-free packaging’ guide

Published: June 20, 2024
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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

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Investment firm details 10 years of plastics impact

Published: June 12, 2024
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A recycle symbol made from three green plastic bottles.

Closed Loop Partners has made more than 80 investments over the past 10 years of existence and is poised to keep going. | Chones/Shutterstock

Closed Loop Partners has provided funding to more than 80 companies and municipalities over its decade in existence, a period of significant turbulence in the U.S. recycling sector. Continue Reading

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Brand owners announce targets for next five years

Published: June 12, 2024
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Blue plastic pellets

The U.S. Plastics Pact reported that by the end of 2022, pact signatories had increased PCR use from 7% to 9.4%. | XXL Photo/Shutterstock

The U.S. Plastics Pact this week unveiled the goals its signatories will strive for during the next five years. Most of the goals build on the efforts over the past five years, and the group’s target date to hit 30% average recycled content has been extended from 2025 to 2030. Continue Reading

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Platform scales up tools to digitize recycling sector

Published: June 5, 2024
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baled plastics

Matium both connects buyers and sellers and makes data reporting easier for users of the digital platform. | Ann-Moore/Shutterstock

Matium last month began the commercial launch of a platform that digitizes many aspects of the plastics recycling trading business. The company also received a recent funding boost from an economic development agency in Colorado.

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Bic reports on 2023 recycled content use

Published: June 5, 2024
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Bic reported 62.1% recycled content in its plastic packaging in 2023, up from 54.7% in 2022 and 52.1% in 2021. | Arhelaos/Shutterstock

French manufacturer Bic used 62% recycled content in its plastic packaging last year, moving it closer to a 2025 goal. But the company has a ways to go to meet its goal for recycled content in its actual products, which include lighters, pens, razors and other consumer goods.

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Complete plastic bag ban clears California Senate

Published: May 30, 2024
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A pile of colorful plastic bags.

Senate Bill 1053 revises California’s bag ban to state that reusable bags provided at point of sale cannot be made from plastic film. | Bowonpat Sakaew/Shutterstock

A bill that expands California’s bag ban to prohibit all plastic bags – even the reusable recycled-content bags that are a major driver of post-consumer film resin sales – is working its way through the California legislative system. Reclaimers and bag producers have come out against the bill. Continue Reading

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