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.
Phoenix is working to double its PET recycling capacity by mid-2023. | Don Pablo/Shutterstock
PET reclaimer Phoenix Technologies International will double its capacity to produce food-grade RPET, allowing it to produce up to 140 million pounds a year, the company announced.
U.S. companies exported 510 million pounds of scrap plastic during the first six months of 2022. | Piyathep/Shutterstock
The U.S. continued to ship less scrap plastic overseas during the first half of this year, federal trade data shows.
A judge determined the key issue was the availability of recycling programs, not whether bottles are made into new items. | Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
If a bottled water label and cap are effectively unrecyclable, and if statistics show a majority of PET bottles are ultimately wasted, can the containers still be labeled as “100% recyclable”? A federal judge recently said yes.
Recovered plastic end users Unifi and Greystone Logistics reported on increased profits recently. | Warut Chinsai/Shutterstock
Greystone Logistics is installing shredding and pelletizing equipment so it can purchase more lower-cost scrap polyethylene, as opposed to recycled resin. And Unifi is opportunistically buying PET bottle bales while it works to pass feedstock cost increases on to buyers of its recycled polyester.
Amazon recently noted it has on-site plastic film recycling systems at facilities across North America and Europe. | Bret Habura/Shutterstock
Amazon has eliminated more than 1.5 million tons of packaging since 2015 and created programs to increase recycling and diversion, according to its latest sustainability report.
August has brought precipitous drops in pricing for PET, color HDPE and polypropylene bales.
Research from the Association of Plastic Recyclers shows a 28% recycling rate for PET and HDPE bottles in 2020. | Frank Fiedler/Shutterstock
The Association of Plastic Recyclers released a report noting 21% of HDPE, PET and PP packaging is recycled in the U.S.
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.