Colin Staub was a reporter and associate editor at Resource Recycling until August 2025.
Legislation introduced last week establishes a framework to enable recycling-related investments. | LWPhotography/Shutterstock
Recycling issues have hit the national stage with unprecedented fervor in recent weeks. Citing recycling market challenges and growing plastic pollution, lawmakers are advancing legislation and pressuring government agencies to take action.
Private equity company Arsenal now has a controlling interest in a firm that collects polyethylene film from farms. | Courtesy of Revolution Plastics
An ag plastics collector, processor and end user will be acquired by a private equity firm, which took note of the company’s unique business model and plans for growth.
84 containers will be returned to countries of origin. | porjai kittawornrat/Shutterstock
More Southeast Asian nations are sending contaminated recyclables back to their originating country, as governments in the region continue to grapple with higher scrap plastic and paper import volumes.
Proposed legislation would include measures to reduce plastic pollution and remove certain single-use products from use. | LLoughran/Shutterstock
Lawmakers are bringing plastics recycling to the federal level with a legislative proposal that includes a national bottle bill and extended producer responsibility.
Green Machine has released an optical sorter that incorporates newly patented technology.
Regulatory changes could prevent the U.S. from exporting mixed plastics to a number of countries. | rawf8/Shutterstock
Federal regulators are asking countries that are major buyers of U.S. recyclables to refrain from implementing new trade restrictions laid out in the Basel Convention, a treaty covering global scrap material shipments.
Olympia, Wash. | Christoper Boswell/Shutterstock
A state-ordered analysis in Washington describes steps to grow regional end markets and processing capacity. One of the top recommendations: the development of a plastics recovery facility.
The average blended value for recyclables at U.S. MRFs was recently calculated at around $35 per ton. | hiv360/Shutterstock
With overseas import restrictions, tariff impacts and domestic market volatility, an erratic business environment has become the norm for recycling operators around North America.
2017 brought the lowest volume of film recovered and sold since 2010. | taniascamera/Shutterstock
Non-bottle mixed plastics and film recycling have experienced their first major drops in a decade, two studies indicate. But amid the challenges, domestic use of both streams increased.
Calif. legislators have heard from a cadre of industry groups recently. | ZikG/Shutterstock
As a plastic packaging reduction bill moves forward in California, an industry group is recommending a per-item fee to fund recycling efforts.