A project is exploring the use of chemistry to recycle polyurethane foam from a variety of durable goods into higher-end applications.
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 project is exploring the use of chemistry to recycle polyurethane foam from a variety of durable goods into higher-end applications.
If a brand owner puts a “not recyclable” label on its packaging, consumers are likely to appreciate the honesty rather than frown on that company, survey results suggest.
In coming years, recycled PET and polyolefins will likely have to continue competing with cheap virgin plastics. But scrap markets will also be impacted by uncertain government policies and brand owner decisions.
European Union leaders appear to have settled on a limit for trace amounts of flame retardants in recycled plastics. A reclaimer called the limit “workable,” but activists say it’s not nearly restrictive enough.
Researchers have found a way to convert post-consumer LDPE and HDPE into energy-storing carbon that can be used in batteries.
Multinational oil and gas company MOL Group will acquire a German recycled plastics compounder.
Retailers supplied composite lumber manufacturer Trex with more than 130 million pounds of recovered film last year. Meanwhile, production issues reduced company profits in the first quarter.
Tech giant HP recently spent $2 million to help improve infrastructure for recovering plastics at risk of entering the ocean. The investment is expected to create jobs in an impoverished area and move more material into the recycling stream.
A Quebec reclaimer has closed and its processing equipment will be sold at auction to pay creditors.
Global apparel company H&M used the equivalent of 325 million PET bottles in its recycled polyester last year, substantially up from the year before.