Amcor designed a 50-milliliter PET bottle that collapses to be wider than five centimeters, helping to prevent it falling through sorting screens at materials recovery facilities (MRFs). | Courtesy of Amcor Rigid Packaging
One of the world’s largest packaging producers boosted its purchases of post-consumer resin by about 30% last year.
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Keurig has tentatively settled a class-action suit regarding the company’s recyclability claims. | John Mantell/Shutterstock
Keurig Green Mountain has reached a tentative class-action settlement with a consumer who is suing the company over its coffee pod recyclability claims.
KW’s new PP wash line has a full capacity of 100 million pounds per year. | Credit: Scott Saunders
KW Plastics in the past month started up a polypropylene wash line that will increase its processing capacity by 100 million pounds per year. Company General Manager Scott Saunders said the line will boost efficiency.
The U.S. Secretary of State has indicated U.S. support for a global plastics pollution treaty. | Gerain0812/Shutterstock
The U.S. has signaled support for a worldwide agreement to reduce marine plastic pollution. Meanwhile, the EU is drafting stricter export rules, a watchdog group is mapping plastic dump sites, and researchers shared findings on the greenhouse gas impacts of virgin plastic shipments.
Unilever reported a 6-percentage-point increase in its post-consumer resin usage in 2020, outpacing most other large brand owners. | Konektus Photo/Shutterstock
Global packaged goods companies disclosed their post-consumer resin usage for 2020, and most of the biggies reported purchasing more recycled plastic than the year before.
Post-consumer plastic values are down nearly across-the-board this month, with materials recovery facilities reporting a particularly steep drop in HDPE pricing.
Per a court settlement, TerraCycle will implement label changes and a supply chain certification program. | Sebastian Duda/Shutterstock
A legal action alleging TerraCycle is misleading consumers about its recycling programs has been settled. TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky said some of the settlement terms cover work the company was already carrying out internally, but one labeling change is new.
An in-depth regulatory development process will be needed to implement a California bill regulating the use of the chasing arrows symbol on packaging. | Merge Digital Media/Shutterstock
Three West Coast states have signed sweeping recycling bills. Now the real work begins to hash out the details on how the policies will affect the plastics recycling industry.
Data shows that in 2020 PET bottles notched a 26.6% collection rate in the U.S., down from 27.9% in 2019. | Torychemistry/Shutterstock
Demand for RPET increased 10% in 2020, but it was accompanied by a decrease in PET bottle collection, according to an annual report from the National Association for PET Container Resources.
NOVA Chemicals noted that rising demand for recycled resin is tied to consumer buying preferences. | Courtesy of NOVA Chemicals
NOVA Chemicals is expanding its PCR business to produce resin made with more recycled plastic, which will be supplied to Charter Next Generation for use in a range of non-food flexible film applications.