Three groups on two continents will work to create one harmonized process for testing the recyclability of plastic products.
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].Three groups on two continents will work to create one harmonized process for testing the recyclability of plastic products.
As part of an effort to help boost market demand, the Association of Plastic Recyclers will hold a joint meeting with an industry group that counts 150 consumer brand companies as members.
In Canada, a number of companies are tackling difficult plastic streams without using traditional mechanical recycling processes. One of them, Pyrowave, uses microwaves to depolymerize polystyrene scrap and has recently made some strong steps forward.
A polymer modifier technology was used compatibilize different resins in multilayer packaging so they could be recycled into new garbage bags. Those bags were then used by volunteers to clean plastics from coastlines.
Doug Woodring
The role of plastics in the larger sustainability movement has been the focus of plenty of industry conversations over the past decade. And it’s out of that environment that the Plasticity series of events has formed.
Nina Bellucci Butler speaks at the Resource Recycling Conference.
U.S. and Canadian end users could consume more of the recovered plastics generated domestically if prices and specifications meet their needs. But a handful of converging market trends are standing in the way of significant growth.
California lawmakers have approved a bill mandating that carpet stewards achieve a 24 percent recycling rate and discouraging the use of incineration. The legislation will now head to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
Manufacturers will voluntarily subsidize post-consumer carpet sortation for an additional year.
California regulators are threatening to bring the hammer down on a carpet stewardship group, saying it has failed for years to grow carpet recycling.
In its first full year of operation, British Columbia’s printed paper and packaging recycling program notched a 77 percent recovery rate, beating the target set by the government.