PureCycle met community resistance to the company’s site near Winter Garden, Fla. | Noah Densmore/Shutterstock
Americans are united in their desire for better plastic recycling, but the question of where to locate facilities is running into familiar not-in-my-backyard resistance, complicated further by concerns about racial and social justice.
Scrap plastics being recycled at PreZero’s Westminster, S.C. facility, which is slated to be closed over the next two months. | Courtesy of PreZero
PreZero US will shutter its South Carolina plastics recycling facility and will instead refocus on expanding its recycling capabilities in California.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required thermoform-to-thermoform recycling. | Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock
Following industry pushback, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have mandated the use of some level of post-consumer resin in thermoform food and drink packaging.
Waste Management reached a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Avangard’s U.S. film recycling business. | Courtesy of Avangard Innovative
The largest curbside garbage and recycling hauler in North America will acquire and scale up Avangard Innovative’s U.S. plastics recycling business.
TOP LUN Plastics Corporation received an LNO that covers the recycling of PET containers into single-layer clamshells. | Rattanapon Ninlapoom/Shutterstock
Ten companies with technologies to recycle post-consumer PET, HDPE and PP into food and drink packaging have received the federal government’s thumbs-up this year.
The commodities market downturn continues this month, with plummeting prices for bales of PET, HDPE and PP.
California legislators sent a number of recycling-related bills to the governor at the end of this session. | Leonid Adnronov/Shutterstock
When California’s legislative session ended Aug. 31, a number of recycling-related bills passed just before the deadline. Here’s a roundup of bills currently waiting to be signed into law and that have already been signed.
Thermoforms like those shown here often contain post-consumer material from bottles, but a California bill would require post-consumer thermoforms to be used in production of new thermoforms. | Anakumka/Shutterstock
Current debate over a California bill requiring PET thermoforms to contain RPET derived from thermoforms boils down to one question: What will materials recovery facilities do?
Estimated to cost between $30 million and $40 million, Phoenix’s project includes constructing a 70,000-square-foot building on the site of its original Bowling Green, Ohio campus. | Korn9/Shutterstock
Phoenix Technologies International kicked off a major PET recycling expansion project right as scrap PET prices tanked. But company leaders aren’t nervous because they are confident in the long-term demand for RPET.
Eric Hartz (center) spoke on a panel with Kate Bailey (right) at the 2022 Resource Recycling Conference. The session was moderated by Sarah Edwards (left). | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Recent years have seen a steady stream of announcements from chemical recycling operators touting technological breakthroughs. But two industry insiders recently issued a stern reminder to the market: Don’t forget about economics.