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].
Bottled water companies that use recycled plastic have recently made new investments and design choices. | iamshutter/Shutterstock
The company behind Crystal Geyser brand water opened a recycled PET plant in Southern California, and Nestlé Waters North America now averages 16.5% RPET in its U.S. containers. The following are details on recent water bottle announcements.
Chemical recycling uses different processes to break plastics down into other chemicals, which can be used to make fuels, new plastics or many other products. | Vershinin89/Shutterstock
A report from activist organization GAIA claims processing strategies that have been heavily promoted by the polymer industry amount to a “greenwashing tactic” undermining efforts to ban single-use plastics.
Starting in 2023, “packaging-like” and “single-use” products will be added to British Columbia’s producer-managed recycling program. | Tudoran Andrei/Shutterstock
Canada’s third-largest province has approved a number of changes to its extended producer responsibility and container deposit programs. Continue Reading
PureCycle submitted a July 14 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating investors had purchased $1.45 million in equity securities in the company. | Freedomz/Shutterstock
PP recycling startup PureCycle Technologies recently raised $1.45 million in investments, financial filings show. Meanwhile, an acquisition-focused company continues to eye PureCycle.
Industry veteran Tamsin Ettefagh recently left HDPE reclaimer Envision Plastics. | Brian Adams Photo / Plastics Recycling Conference and Trade Show.
Tamsin Ettefagh, who has helped lead a couple of the largest plastics recycling companies in North America, has embarked on a new consulting venture.
Industry groups want the federal government to add a variety of recycled-plastic products into federal procurement guidelines. | Suttipong Prangsuwan/Shutterstock
As the U.S. EPA updates its lists of recycled-content products purchased by federal agencies, plastics recycling stakeholders are making their voices heard.
Ring Container Technologies began exploring and developing a PET canister to replace traditional composite can formats early in 2017. The first SmartCANs were shipped in June 2018. | Courtesy of Ring Container Technologies.
Ring Container Technologies wanted to understand the curbside recyclability of an all-PET container versus its existing polycoated paperboard canister. So it asked recycling programs themselves.
Among the recycling challenges with PET thermoforms are non-PET look-alike packaging and greater fines generation during the recycling process. | BravissimoS/Shutterstock
Several recycling industry trade associations will collaborate on a study to try to move the needle on recovery of PET thermoforms.
According to The Recycling Partnership, single-family households in the U.S. may be generating as much as 1.6 billion pounds of recyclable PP scrap each year. | Sodel Vladyslav/Shutterstock
An initiative from The Recycling Partnership will provide millions of dollars in capital to help sorting facilities install equipment for PP recovery.
Based on the lab-scale research, the Plastics Industry Association is now working with several companies to use a recycled-PE binder in asphalt on privately funded roadways and parking lots. | Marcel Derweduwen/Shutterstock
Research shows post-consumer PE film could improve the stiffness and resistance of polymer-modified asphalt at less cost than the co-polymers that are typically used.