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Tech giant pens detailed ‘plastic-free packaging’ guide

Published: June 20, 2024
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The “Plastic Free Packaging Design Guide” focuses on how Google has moved toward fiber-based packaging and away from plastics in its consumer electronics products. | Tada Images/Shutterstock

Google this month published a comprehensive look at how the company has approached designing its packaging for minimal plastic use. In publicly detailing its methodology, the major corporation laid out a philosophy that “sustainability should be a collaborative endeavor, not a competitive one.” Continue Reading

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Activist report card: ‘A’ on EPR support, ‘F’ on goals

Published: June 20, 2024
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Of 147 companies ranked with stated recyclability goals, only 22 are on track to meet them. | Valeriya Bogdanova/Shutterstock

Most companies are likely to miss their recyclability goals and are using more plastic than before despite reduction goals, but there has been a shift to supporting extended producer responsibility policies, according to a recently released report card from the environmental activist group As You Sow. Continue Reading

EPR of the past, present and future in British Columbia

Published: June 20, 2024
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The June 14 webinar “EPR in British Columbia: A Timeline of Success and Challenge Past, Present, Future” brought together nine speakers with long experience in extended producer responsibility in the province. | Vipada Kanajod/Shutterstock

How did a law intended to stop can-tabs litter in British Columbia lead to today’s expansive extended producer responsibility laws? Those involved in its evolution traced the path in a webinar hosted by the Coast Waste Management Association.  Continue Reading

Brand owners announce targets for next five years

Published: June 12, 2024
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Blue plastic pellets

The U.S. Plastics Pact reported that by the end of 2022, pact signatories had increased PCR use from 7% to 9.4%. | XXL Photo/Shutterstock

The U.S. Plastics Pact this week unveiled the goals its signatories will strive for during the next five years. Most of the goals build on the efforts over the past five years, and the group’s target date to hit 30% average recycled content has been extended from 2025 to 2030. Continue Reading

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Thinking outside the sustainability box

Published: June 12, 2024
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Panelists discuss how collaboration can benefit all parties during the session “The New Era of Collaboration” at the 2024 Plastics Recycling Conference in Grapevine, Texas. | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling

Collaboration between all parts of the plastic value chain is necessary to advance sustainability goals, and four companies at the 2024 Plastics Recycling Conference showed how they’re embodying that idea.  Continue Reading

Platform scales up tools to digitize recycling sector

Published: June 5, 2024
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baled plastics

Matium both connects buyers and sellers and makes data reporting easier for users of the digital platform. | Ann-Moore/Shutterstock

Matium last month began the commercial launch of a platform that digitizes many aspects of the plastics recycling trading business. The company also received a recent funding boost from an economic development agency in Colorado.

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Bic reports on 2023 recycled content use

Published: June 5, 2024
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Bic reported 62.1% recycled content in its plastic packaging in 2023, up from 54.7% in 2022 and 52.1% in 2021. | Arhelaos/Shutterstock

French manufacturer Bic used 62% recycled content in its plastic packaging last year, moving it closer to a 2025 goal. But the company has a ways to go to meet its goal for recycled content in its actual products, which include lighters, pens, razors and other consumer goods.

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By and for Minnesotans: Getting packaging EPR passed

Published: June 5, 2024
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Minnesota State Capitol

Minnesota became the fifth U.S. state to pass extended producer responsibility for packaging. | IMG_191/Shutterstock

After months of collaboration and negotiation, stakeholders in Minnesota walked away with an extended producer responsibility bill for packaging that had elements both familiar and unique, and an overarching question: Is this the first state in a new wave of EPR or a continuation of early adopters? 

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Complete plastic bag ban clears California Senate

Published: May 30, 2024
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A pile of colorful plastic bags.

Senate Bill 1053 revises California’s bag ban to state that reusable bags provided at point of sale cannot be made from plastic film. | Bowonpat Sakaew/Shutterstock

A bill that expands California’s bag ban to prohibit all plastic bags – even the reusable recycled-content bags that are a major driver of post-consumer film resin sales – is working its way through the California legislative system. Reclaimers and bag producers have come out against the bill. Continue Reading

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