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].
Industry group Plastic Recyclers Europe is asking the European Union (EU) and individual countries to include recycling in their recovery plans. | sakhorn/Shutterstock
Coronavirus shutdown impacts have converged with low virgin plastic prices to spell significant struggles for European plastics reclaimers, according to a trade association.
TerraCycle US sold $5.81 million worth of recycled plastic and other materials in 2019, well over double its net sales from the prior year. | Courtesy of TerraCycle.
This article has been updated.
A car seat recycling deal with a major retailer helped boost TerraCycle’s recovered commodity sales by over $3.5 million last year, according to a financial report.
The CDC recently released a document covering steps employees and employers in the recycling and waste industries can take to prevent the spread of the virus. | g0d4ather/Shutterstock
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a fact sheet to help keep garbage and recycling industry workers safe during the pandemic.
NRT is currently producing about 75 mask comfort products a day, with the first 300 to be delivered to Nashville hospitals May 6. | Courtesy of National Recovery Technologies (NRT).
Normally, NRT’s 3D printer is busy producing parts for optical sorters and other recycling machinery. But amid the pandemic, the company is also using the technology to make mask straps that help out health care workers.
Officials estimate that 20 projects receiving grants will collectively divert an additional 15,400 tons of post-industrial and post-consumer plastic from landfills each year. | ImagineStock/Shutterstock
North Carolina recently awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to help plastics recycling companies invest in new equipment.
If EVOH is used at too high of a level in an HDPE container, it can damage the quality of the recycled HDPE. | Koray Akar/Shutterstock
An innovation is allowing natural HDPE bottles containing higher levels of EVOH to be recycled into pellets that are free of yellowing, gels and specks.
Coperion K-Tron’s feeder can be used for both loss-in-weight feeding to continuous processes and loss-in-weight batching direct to batch blenders. | Courtesy of Coperion K-Tron
The variability of recycled plastic streams doesn’t just present challenges in terms of extruding and molding products. It also complicates the feeding of plastic into compounding equipment.
Troy University researchers are investigating methods for recycling medical plastics into new products. | Rob Byron/Shutterstock
The coronavirus has put a focus on the plastics used in the manufacture of gloves, masks and other types of personal protective equipment. KW Plastics will assist Troy University scientists who are studying the recycling of that material.
The Richmond, Ind. plant will be DAK Americas’ second producing food-grade 100% RPET pellets. | Courtesy of DAK Americas
DAK Americas will spend $32 million on a project allowing it to produce food-grade 100% RPET pellets in North America for the first time.
Bloem is a mid-sized planter manufacturer producing about 25 million pots a year. | Courtesy of Bloem.
A polypropylene planter producer has begun molding with marine plastics, after the company and its suppliers overcame melt flow and color consistency challenges.
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