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].
A number of companies received approval to use their recycling technology to produce recycled plastic for use in food and drink packaging.| Somsak21/Shutterstock
A company was given the go-ahead to recycle post-consumer PET into multi-layer reheatable food trays. Meanwhile, a global packaging company was OK’d to recycle LDPE films into reusable bags.
Photo provided by Milliken shows the results of the use of Millad NX 8000 clarifier.
A market-dominating polypropylene clarifier has undergone testing to prove that it neither complicates the plastics recycling process nor harms the finished product.
Some readers challenged the environmental benefit of Arqlite’s plastic gravel product. | Via Arqlite’s Instagram page.
A startup won money and media attention for its recycled plastic gravel, but some readers are concerned the product could cause more environmental harm than simply landfilling the scrap plastic.
Unifi identified a number of factors that accounted for lower profits last fiscal year. | Recycle Man/Shutterstock
A major U.S. consumer of RPET enjoyed higher sales figures but suffered significantly lower net income last fiscal year. One reason was cheap polyester imports from China and India.
Dow has a goal of incorporating at least 100,000 metric tons of recycled plastics into its product offerings sold in the European Union by 2025. | Richard Frazier/Shutterstock
Dow has become the latest virgin plastics company to announce it will offer products derived from a chemical recycling technology.
Low prices for key commodities have, in some cases, led to the removal of plastics from curbside recycling programs. | Johnny Habell/Shutterstock
North America’s largest companies collecting, sorting and selling curbside plastics continue to feel the pain of low commodity prices.
Keurig Dr Pepper says it will make all K-Cup coffee pods in the U.S. recyclable by 2020. | Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
Keurig Dr Pepper announced its goal of using 30% post-consumer content across its packaging portfolio by 2025.
Sonoco has pledged to boost the post-consumer content in its plastics packaging to 25% by 2025. | Janthiwa Sutthiboriban/Shutterstock
A packaging giant has notched upward the amount of RPET it uses in its food containers.
Argentina-based Arqlite’s first gravel products were sold to customers earlier this year. | Courtesy of Arqlite.
Consulting firm B-Green was helping consumer brand owners reduce waste to landfill, but the companies’ packaging lacked a diversion solution. So B-Green went to work developing a recycling technology and end product.
Packaging company Mondi led a project that created a pouch made of 20% post-consumer plastic. | Courtesy of Mondi.
For years, packaging producers have been marketing recyclable multi-layer flexible packages. Now, they’re finding success using recycled plastic in their products.