Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
While overall workplace fatalities decreased in the U.S. in 2023, the waste and recycling industry was a troubling outlier. | Wave Break Media/Shutterstock
Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Nine workers died in U.S. materials recovery facilities in 2023 and the death rate for refuse and recyclable material collectors jumped more than 80%, according to the latest annual numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continue Reading
European recycling capacity growth slowed markedly in 2023, an industry report found. | Fahroni/Shutterstock
A combination of decreasing post-consumer resin demand, high energy costs and stiff competition from both virgin and imported recycled resin struck a blow to Europe’s reclaimers in 2023, according to an annual industry association report. Continue Reading
The PureCycle facility in Denver, Pennsylvania is primarily sourcing PP bales from MRFs across the Northeast. | Ulrich Mueller/Shutterstock
Polypropylene recycling firm PureCycle has started up a feedstock preparation plant in Pennsylvania, bringing in plastic bales from MRFs and extracting the PP for processing at the company’s main Ohio facility. Continue Reading
The Vinyl Sustainability Council reported an annual estimated North American PVC recycling figure of 1.1 billion pounds, which includes both post-industrial and post-consumer. | Warin Keawchookul/Shutterstock
Plastics recycling firms continue to process about 958 million pounds of post-industrial PVC and 142 million pounds of post-consumer, non-packaging PVC each year, together accounting for an estimated 27% of annual North American PVC waste generation, the Vinyl Sustainability Council said this week. Continue Reading
Amy Uong, second from right, speaks during ‘Saying Yes in the Land of No,’ a session held during the Resource Recycling Conference in Kentucky last month. | Dan Holtmeyer/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Faced with challenges moving recycled materials in recent years, MRFs and curbside recycling programs have occasionally opted to stop accepting certain materials, particularly experimental or harder-to-market packaging types.
The study found flame retardants in some black plastic kitchen utensils that contained recycled resin. | Jared Paben/Resource Recycling
A recent study has focused public attention on household products containing plastic that the authors suggest was recovered from electronics, raising safety concerns about chemicals contained within the recycled content.
For the first nine months of 2024, recovered plastic exports remained steady year over year, marking a change from multiple years of annual declines in export volume. | Qingqing/Shutterstock
For the first nine months of 2024, recovered plastic exports remained steady year over year, marking a change from multiple years of annual declines in export volume. Continue Reading
A judge ruled PepsiCo isn’t legally liable for the pollution its packaging can become, and that the responsibility rests solely with the person who improperly disposed of the product. | LuqmanLutfi Photography/Shutterstock
Under current New York law, PepsiCo can’t be held legally responsible for consumers improperly disposing of its packaging, a state supreme court judge has ruled. And now, a California court will test similar legal theories. Continue Reading
The Ohio facility will help ADS explore new ways of using recycled resin, among other research work. | Photo courtesy ADS
One of the largest recycled plastics processors in the country has started up an engineering center in Ohio, where the company will research and test materials for use in its industrial water management products. Continue Reading
Bloomberg’s latest Circular Economy Company Ranking reported on corporate sustainability pledges, finding a theme of costs outweighing target progress. | Aykut Erdogdu/Shutterstock
A new report from Bloomberg’s market research division provides further evidence of brand owners struggling to meet stated recycled content goals due to a lack of available material and cost pressure.