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Category: News

State legislators explain why they’re drawn to EPR

Published: August 9, 2022
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Documents stacked in an office.

Legislators recently spoke about their challenges and successes with EPR legislation. | Banlai/Shutterstock

Four state-level elected officials who have worked on extended producer responsibility bills for packaging recently discussed how they became champions of recycling policy and offered tips to help advance legislation.

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Province sees higher packaging collection rates

Published: August 9, 2022
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Recycling carts in front of a brick wall.

For the second year in a row, Recycle BC observed “significant growth” in collected metrics tons, with a 17% increase over the past two years. | Stephen Griffith/Shutterstock

British Columbia’s paper and plastic packaging collection rates rebounded in 2021 after pandemic-related challenges, reaching a record-high recovery rate of just over 94%.

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Recycling and composting bills pass Senate

Published: August 2, 2022
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View of the U.S. capitol in Washington, D.C.

The industry-supported bills would establish a grant program and mandate better reporting. | Orhan Cam/Shutterstock

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed two bills that would improve rural recycling and composting accessibility as well as boost data collection, sending the legislation to the House for a vote.

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McKinsey: By one key measure, plastics beat alternatives

Published: August 2, 2022
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Different beverage containers, metal, glass and plastic.

Researchers found that plastics can offer lower greenhouse gas emissions than substitutes in a number of use cases. | VanderWolf/Shutterstock

The severe impact of plastic ocean pollution has long been recognized, but research firm McKinsey wants to inject some of plastic’s climate benefits into the collective materials usage discussion.

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Novolex purchased more PCR in 2021, but majority remains virgin

Published: August 2, 2022
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Stacked rolls of plastic bags.

Novolex reported an increase in weight of post-consumer recycled plastic used in the company’s products for 2021, though the number did not rise as a percentage of total resin used. | a_v_d/Shutterstock

Bag manufacturer Novolex increased the amount of PCR it bought in 2021, but PCR remained just 4% of overall plastic feedstock purchased.

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How2Recycle returns PP to ‘widely recycled’ level

Published: July 28, 2022
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Grocery store shelf showing polypropylene yogurt tubs.

Polypropylene rigid containers have been upgraded to “widely recycled” under the How2Recycle labeling protocol. | Colleen Michaels/Shutterstock

Two years after downgrading rigid polypropylene containers to “check locally,” a label system has returned the material to its previous status, determining at least 60% of the country has access to PP collection.

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Coca-Cola to eliminate green PET in North America

Published: August 2, 2022
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Sprite bottles in store.

North American consumers will no longer see Sprite in green PET bottles as The Coca-Cola Co. works to increase bottle-to-bottle recycling. | Adnan Zain Kautsar/Shutterstock

To make recycling its bottles easier, Coca-Cola announced it will switch all of its green PET to clear PET in coming months.

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Our top stories from July 2022

Published: August 2, 2022
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News about Driscoll’s thermoform recycling efforts captured reader attention last month. | Courtesy of Driscoll’s

A berry brand’s thermoforming recycling efforts and other news drew our readers’ clicks last month.

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How different diversion systems stack up on GHG emissions

Published: July 26, 2022
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Curbside recycling

Using 2014 data from the U.S. EPA, researchers examined GHG benefits of recycling. | Lawrence Glass/Shutterstock

A new life cycle assessment quantifies the impacts of different curbside collection scenarios, concluding that a typical single-stream recycling program reduces overall emissions by almost 40% when compared with simply landfilling the material.

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