Associate Editor Jared Paben has worked for Resource Recycling since December 2014. Most of his earlier career was spent as a reporter for the daily newspaper in Bellingham, Wash., but he also has experience working for the Oregon volunteerism commission and for Oregon nonprofits serving low-income populations. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Balcones Resources’ materials recovery facility (MRF) in Austin, Texas is one of a dozen recycling facilities now owned by newly launched company Circular Services. | Jared Paben / Plastics Recycling Update.
Last year’s launch of Circular Services created a new family of varied recycling companies, yet they’re all focused on a circular economy and are fueled with hundreds of millions of dollars in fresh capital.
D&W Fine Pack has used RPET for roughly a decade, and is now ramping up its use of post-consumer resins in response to growing demand. | Aykut Erdogdu/Shutterstock
A multi-million-dollar equipment investment is enabling D&W Fine Pack to recycle post-consumer PET flakes into 100% recycled content food packaging. An executive at the company described the project and the benefits it will bring.
Nexus Circular uses a pyrolysis technology to process scrap plastics into an oil that plastics producers can use to make new polyolefins. | Courtesy of Nexus Circular
Atlanta-based Nexus Circular has received a $150 million investment from a diversified global company, which will become its new owner. Continue Reading
Environmental group Oceana estimates Amazon produced 709 million pounds of plastic packaging in 2021. | oasisamuel/Shutterstock
Amazon recently disclosed data on its plastic packaging footprint and sustainability efforts. But where the online giant sees progress, an environmental group sees cherry-picked numbers.
Greiner Packaging was one of several companies to get the go-ahead from the European Food Safety Authority to recycle post-consumer PET into 100% recycled-content food and drink packaging. | Courtesy of Greiner
A scientific review panel has given the green light to several different technologies to recycle post-consumer PET and polyolefins into 100% recycled-content food and drink packaging.
The commission voted 4-0 to publish a notice in the Federal Register to begin a 60-day public comment period. That notice is expected to be published in mid-January of 2023. | DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock
Companies making deceptive sustainability claims distort the market for environmentally friendly products and “hurt honest companies who are bearing the costs of green business practices,” the chair of the FTC said this week.
ACI Plastics’ new extruder (at left) and wash line (at right) at the Flint, Mich. recycling plant. | Courtesy of ACI Plastics
ACI Plastics is approaching the finish line on its film line.
The increase marks the end of a years-long slide in the country’s PET bottle recovery rate, which had been falling since 2017. | New Africa/Shutterstock
The U.S. PET bottle recovery rate made a notable jump last year, reaching 28.6%, according to an industry report published today.
The Keycycle deinking technology. | Courtesy of EREMA
A technology to use supercritical carbon dioxide to decontaminate scrap plastics received a big financial boost, and major equipment suppliers made some scrap deinking announcements. The following are recent mechanical recycling technology announcements.
Michael Zamora, senior vice president of Product Solutions at ExxonMobil, and Ron Delia, CEO at Amcor, signed the agreement, through which ExxonMobil will sell increasing amounts of recycled resin each year to Amcor. | Courtesy of Amcor
One of the world’s largest packaging producers, Amcor, has signed a deal to buy huge amounts of chemically recycled resin from one of the world’s largest plastics producers, ExxonMobil.