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Virgin plastic company signs deals with Merlin

Published: September 2, 2020
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Inside the Merlin Plastics facility.

Merlin Plastics currently produces non-food-contact recycled HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE and PP, as well as RPET approved for use in food and drink packaging. | Courtesy of NOVA Chemicals.

NOVA Chemicals will provide financing to Merlin Plastics to help the reclaimer produce food-contact recycled HDPE. Then, NOVA will buy up to 30 million pounds of the PCR per year.

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End users report pandemic-period financials

Published: September 2, 2020
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Business documents on a desk.

Sales and profits were up for two major consumers of recycled plastic. | Orathai Mayoeh/Shutterstock

COVID-19 and the related economic slowdowns have bruised the bottom line of a major RPET consumer, but other recycled-plastic-product makers have reported economic gains.

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How a partnership created a ring carrier recycling program

Published: August 26, 2020
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Avangard Innovative plastic recycling facility.

LDPE ring carriers are an important ingredient in Avangard Innovative’s “recipe” to make high quality PCR. | Courtesy of Avangard Innovative.

Plastics reclaimer Avangard Innovative will sell millions of pounds of PCR each year to six-pack carrier manufacturer Hi-Cone Worldwide, as the companies expand their existing business relationship.

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Feds issue slew of food-contact recycled plastics letters

Published: August 26, 2020
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PET plastic bottle in a person's hand.

The U.S. FDA recently approved a number of recycling technologies for converting PET into use for food and drink packaging. | RecycleMan/Shutterstock

The FDA gave Indorama Ventures the green light to use a depolymerization technology to produce RPET for food and drink packaging. The agency also gave nods for other PET, HDPE and PP recycling processes.

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Asian film processor details new ‘credit’ funding system

Published: August 19, 2020
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Film processing at Myanmar Recycles.

Myanmar Recycles has customized a wash line with more than a dozen different washing steps along the way. | Courtesy of Myanmar Recycles.

A film recycling company in Myanmar is among the first to take part in a global plastic credit system, which could direct financing from corporations to help the recycling firm expand its capacity.

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Here are the latest film and non-bottle rigid recycling stats

Published: August 19, 2020
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Plastic bags for recycling.

Just over 1 billion pounds of post-consumer bag and film plastics were recovered in 2018. | Pavel Kubarkov/Shutterstock

The amount of U.S. film and non-bottle rigids collected for recycling decreased in 2018, but domestic processors took in more of the material, according to More Recycling.

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Plastic exports drop 18% in first half of 2020

Published: August 12, 2020
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Cargo ship at port.

The U.S. exported 635 million pounds of scrap plastic during the first half of the year, down 18% year over year. | Halawi/Shutterstock

New trade figures show lower year-over-year exports of recovered plastic from January to June. The decline was largely driven by less material going to India.

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Oregon deposit return rate increased in 2019

Published: August 12, 2020
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Empty plastic bottles for recycling.

By material type, the percentage of plastic containers redeemed through the Oregon deposit program increased more than other materials in 2019. | Picsfive/Shutterstock

Consumers in Oregon last year returned 86% of all beverage containers covered under the state’s container deposit program, according to newly released figures.

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