Marissa Heffernan worked at Resource Recycling from January 2022 through June 2025, first as staff reporter and then as associate editor. Marissa Heffernan started working for Resource Recycling in January 2022 after spending several years as a reporter at a daily newspaper in Southwest Washington. After developing a special focus on recycling policy, they were also the editor of the monthly newsletter Policy Now.
At the recent Association of Plastic Recyclers member meeting, The Recycling Partnership presented on their packaging recyclability database. | Screenshot of video showing database in use.
At the June Association of Plastic Recyclers members meeting, speakers shared insights on policy, data collection and a shifting tone in how the sector portrays itself.
With the governor’s signature last week, Colorado became the third U.S. state with an extended producer responsibility law for some printed paper and packaging. | Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock
Producer responsibility advocates celebrated the signing of Colorado’s extended producer responsibility bill into law, but were left wanting in New York as two bills failed this session.
An OECD report anticipates marine debris will increase significantly in volume over the next several decades. | Santiparp Wattanaporn/Shutterstock
Globally, discarded plastic levels could nearly triple by 2060, with about half of the plastic ending up in landfill and less than a fifth recycled, an OECD report projected.
Birch Plastics recently completed GreenCircle certification of the company’s PP and HDPE recycled resins. | Courtesy of Birch Plastics
Texas-based Birch Plastics recently worked with a third-party auditor to verify its recycling process, a step more reclaimers and compounders are considering as end users look for certainty in their feedstock.
Changes to Iowa’s bottle redemption program are awaiting the Governor’s signature. | Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock
Iowa lawmakers have approved container deposit legislation that triples the bottle handling fee but allows grocery stores and other retail entities to opt out of the collection system, a fact that could significantly reduce redemption access.
Researchers at Rice University turned milled-together bumpers, gaskets, carpets, mats, seating and door casings from Ford F-150 pickup trucks into graphene. | mynewturtle/Shutterstock
An experiment by Rice University and Ford turned mixed plastic from old vehicles into graphene, which was then used in a polyurethane foam for new vehicles.
Phillips 66 shareholders voted to support a resolution asking the energy company to detail its market risks of continuing to invest in virgin plastics. | Courtesy of Phillips 66
This story has been updated.
A slight majority of shareholders at Chevron Phillips’ parent company recently voted to support a resolution on shifting toward more recycled plastic use, while 37.4% of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in favor of a similar resolution. Amazon shareholders vote on a similar resolution this week.
Goodwill Industries of West Michigan will partner with recycled-plastics product maker HydroBlox. | Joni Hanebutt/Shutterstock
A new plant in western Michigan will recycle recovered plastic from Goodwill into stormwater drainage infrastructure.
Indorama Ventures developed its PET food tray recycling technology over the past six years. | Pavel Kapysh/Shutterstock
Indorama Ventures is moving into the commercial stage of a project in which post-consumer PET trays are recycled into flake used in food packaging.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year provides about $350 million to the U.S. EPA over several years to fund recycling infrastructure and education grants. | RozenskiP/Shutterstock
The U.S. EPA is working to build several grant programs from the ground up thanks to an influx of money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and it is reaching out to stakeholders to make sure the programs will meet industry needs.