Marissa Heffernan started working for Resource Recycling in January 2022 after spending several years as a reporter at a daily newspaper in Southwest Washington. She can be contacted at [email protected].
The plant’s advanced suite of technology represents “a new era for plastic recycling,” according to Swedish Plastic Recycling CEO Mattias Philipsson. | New Africa/Shutterstock
Swedish Plastic Recycling plans to open its largest and most advanced plastic sorting and recycling facility on Nov. 15 in Motala, Sweden. Continue Reading
Terrapure Plastics Recycling Manager Martin Fournier shows visitors plastic chips from crushed batteries as they enter the recycling process. | Courtesy of Terrapure
Canadian company Terrapure Environmental brought a plastics recycling system on-line at its existing battery recycling plant in Quebec. Continue Reading
A report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reveals that major brand owners and retailers increased their use of PCR from 10.0% in 2021 to 11.7% in 2022. One of the largest, PepsiCo, increased from 6.3% PCR to 7.3%. | pixinoo/Shutterstock
The fifth report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation found that a few big-name brands’ increased use of virgin plastic has been offsetting the overall reduction achieved by the rest of the reporting companies. Continue Reading
A rendering of the Republic Polymer Center set for Indianapolis. | Courtesy of Republic Services
Republic Services announced that its second plastics processing and production hub, expected to come on-line in late 2024, will be located in Indianapolis. Continue Reading
Lynn Hoffman of Eureka Recycling was a speaker on a recent webinar discussing the merits and shortcomings of the myriad processes grouped under the umbrella of “chemical recycling.” | Resource Recycling files
Chemical recycling has potential but requires careful regulation, more transparency, and an eye to the overall effect on the planet, members of the environmental and recycling communities said in a recent webinar. Continue Reading
The groups behind the database have already compiled a dataset that includes about 1,000 plastic reduction laws in the U.S. | DC Studio/Shutterstock
In order to tamp down on plastic pollution, several environmental groups have worked together to launch a global database for tracking plastic-related laws. It even covers the upcoming United Nations plastics agreement. Continue Reading
Digimarc’s digital watermark system allows consumers to scan containers to find information on where to recycle them. | Showcake/Shutterstock
After several years of testing, the “Holy Grail 2.0” project announced it will move forward with a countrywide pilot of Digimarc’s digital recycling technology in France in 2024. Continue Reading
Companies such as Prairie Robotics and AMCS Group are leveraging AI to craft more robust analytics, all the way down to the individual household level. | 9dream Studio/Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence is now well established in MRFs as a tool for sorting material and dramatically reducing contamination. Now, multiple companies are taking AI to an earlier stage of the recycling process by mounting cameras on collection trucks. Continue Reading
According to a recent report from the Argonne National Laboratory, LDPE and HDPE made with 5% pyrolysis oil emit a lower volume of greenhouse gases than their virgin counterparts. | Vikentiy Elizarov/Shutterstock
A life cycle analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory suggested that chemically recycling plastics entails lower greenhouse gas emissions than virgin production. Continue Reading
Topics at a recent discussion of EPR programs included collection, efficiency and harmony across jurisdictions. | mi_viri/Shutterstock
Producer responsibility organizations can help drive efficiency and harmonization in extended producer responsibility programs, stakeholders suggested at a recent conference. Continue Reading