Category: Top stories

Corporate giants face internal pressure on plastic

Published: May 25, 2022
Updated: May 25, 2022
by Marissa Heffernan

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.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged brand owners, industry groups |

ADS boosts profits despite PCR cost increases

Published: May 25, 2022
Updated: May 25, 2022
by Jared Paben

Business charts with pen, glasses and calculator.

In the company’s annual report, ADS showed gross profit was over $800 million, up 16% from the previous year. | Leonid Sorokin/Shutterstock

Advanced Drainage Systems, now the largest plastics reclaimer in North America, increased its product sales by nearly 40% last year.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged converters, HDPE, markets, PP, PS |

Indorama set to commercialize PET tray recycling process

Published: May 25, 2022
Updated: May 25, 2022
by Marissa Heffernan

View of Indorama company website with magnifying glass.

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.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged Europe, PET, technology |

Industry reacts to passage of Colorado packaging EPR bill

Published: May 18, 2022
Updated: May 18, 2022
by Marissa Heffernan

Various household packaging and recyclable materials.

Colorado is the third state in the U.S. to pass a packaging extended producer responsibility bill, and the first in the 2022 legislative session. | Arturs Budkevics/Shutterstock

While many industry leaders praised the recent passage of a Colorado bill establishing extended producer responsibility for printed paper and packaging, others are calling for Gov. Jared Polis to veto it.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged EPR/stewardship, industry groups |

Composite decking companies expand, boosting PCR demand

Published: May 18, 2022
Updated: May 18, 2022
by Marissa Heffernan

Cedar Poly in Tipson, Iowa was just acquired by UFP Industries. | Cedar Poly website

Recycled-plastic decking manufacturers are responding to strong markets for their products by expanding production capacity, including UFP buying reclaimer Cedar Poly and Fiberon breaking ground on a facility in Tennessee.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged converters, HDPE, LDPE, processors |

McKinsey weighs in on chemical recycling potential

Published: May 18, 2022
Updated: May 18, 2022
by Jared Paben

The report discusses investments that would need to occur in terms of scrap plastic collection and sorting, existing impediments to scaling up chemical recycling and more. | David Gyung/Shutterstock

If $40 billion were invested in chemical recycling technologies and certain constraints were resolved, chemical recycling processes could satisfy 4-8% of total polymer demand by 2030, according to a new analysis.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged research |

Plastics recycling report draws mainstream notice

Published: May 11, 2022
Updated: May 11, 2022
by Marissa Heffernan

HDPE plastic bottles arranged on yellow background.

Plastics recycling is drawing mainstream media attention in the wake of recent data showing low and declining recycling rates in the U.S. | lary_bird/Shutterstock

A recent report on plastic recycling rates from The Last Beach Clean Up and Beyond Plastics has attracted the attention of several large news outlets and the mainstream public, but industry leaders said the data is misleading and counter-productive.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged collection, industry groups, PET |

EPR and packaging-reduction bill introduced in New York

Published: May 11, 2022
Updated: May 11, 2022
by Marissa Heffernan

The introduction of the EPR bill came after lawmakers stripped a prior EPR program out of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal. | Paul Brady Photography/Shutterstock

An extended producer responsibility bill that has the support of environmental activists was recently introduced in New York, while a Colorado EPR bill moved to the Senate floor.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged EPR/stewardship, industry groups, legislation |

Robotics provider begins operating its own facilities

Published: May 11, 2022
Updated: May 11, 2022
by Dan Leif

Secondary-sortation sites run by AMP Robotics are targeting a wide variety of materials that come from MRFs and other sources. | Courtesy of AMP Robotics

AMP Robotics is now breaking and sorting materials recovery facility residual bales at secondary-sortation operations in Colorado, Georgia and Ohio.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged challenging materials |

Polyethylene film recycling plant coming to Minnesota

Published: May 4, 2022
Updated: May 4, 2022
by Jared Paben

A number of prominent names are financing Myplas USA’s first U.S. polyethylene film recycling plant, to be located in Rogers, Minn., outside of Minneapolis. | Joyce Blessthink/Shutterstock

Brand owners and other private and public entities are investing millions of dollars into a plastic reclaimer’s project to build a 170,000-square-foot film recycling facility in the Upper Midwest.

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged brand owners, converters, film, HDPE, industry groups, LDPE, processors |