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Category: Top stories

Limited PCR supply a ‘key constraint’ for end users

Published: March 20, 2024
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Plastic resin on a white background.

Companies that have voluntarily signed on with the U.S. Plastics Pact used 9.4% post-consumer recycled resin in 2022, up from 8% the prior year. | Saravutpics/Shutterstock

Companies producing a third of all plastic packaging by weight in the U.S. used 9.4% post-consumer recycled resin in 2022, up from 8% the prior year, the U.S. Plastics Pact recently reported. Continue Reading

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Diverse coalition pushes for national deposit system

Published: March 13, 2024
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PET bottles for recycling.

Alpek Polyester and BlueTriton Brands joined a lobbying effort to advocate for a national bottle bill. | New Africa/Shutterstock

Resin giants recently joined environmental groups in the nation’s Capitol to advocate for a national bottle bill, a coordinated push organized by the National Stewardship Action Council. Continue Reading

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Committee explores federal role in packaging EPR

Published: March 13, 2024
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The Senate Committee of Environment & Public Works held a hearing on extended producer responsibility for consumer packaging with speakers from the World Wildlife Fund, S. C. Johnson & Son and AMERIPEN. | DeawSS/Shutterstock

Industry representatives from across the plastic chain – as well as an environmental NGO – all told a federal committee that they think federal extended producer responsibility for packaging is worth considering.  Continue Reading

How sorting upgrades made a contaminant a product

Published: March 6, 2024
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Rumpke’s new Columbus, Ohio MRF is key to a partnership with Eastman Chemical that will create an end market for opaque PET materials, among other hard-to-recycle products. | Courtesy of Rumpke

A partnership between midwest recycling processor Rumpke and resin giant Eastman Chemical will create an end market for opaque and otherwise hard-to-recycle PET materials, driven by state-of-the-art sortation capabilities at Rumpke’s Columbus, Ohio MRF.

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Chemical recycling not ‘recycling’ in Maine

Published: March 6, 2024
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The bill passed the state Senate 21-13 on Feb. 6 entirely on party lines, the House 76-56 on Feb. 15, and was chaptered into law on March 5. | Yurii-Prohonnyi/Shutterstock

Although there are no chemical recycling facilities currently operating in the Pine Tree State, any starting up in the future will be considered “chemical plastic processing” operations subject to solid waste facility permitting, and their process will not be considered “recycling,” lawmakers recently voted.

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