Industry Announcements
Plastics Recycling Update highlights the latest announcements from industry companies and organizations. For information on submitting press releases or contributing op-eds to us, review our FAQ page.
Plastics Recycling Update highlights the latest announcements from industry companies and organizations. For information on submitting press releases or contributing op-eds to us, review our FAQ page.
Agilyx processed 1,300 pounds of single-use plastic cups collected from the Oregon Brewers Festival over the summer.
Austria-based packaging manufacturer Alpla signed purchase agreements for the acquisition of two Spanish HDPE recycling operations: Suminco S.A. in Montcada (near Barcelona) and Replacal S.L. in Palencia (north of Madrid).
Plastics-to-fuel operator Brightmark Energy has launched a nationwide site search as it looks to develop facilities beyond the one it is currently constructing in Ashley, Ind.
The Foodservice Packaging Institute and the Association of Plastic Recyclers published a fact sheet detailing end markets for recycled polypropylene.
Keep America Beautiful chose the American Chemistry Council (ACC) as its 2019 Vision for America Award recipient.
Nestlé Waters North America introduced a line of DC Comics-themed 100% RPET water bottles.
Plastics Industry Association President and CEO Tony Radoszewski testified before Congress, speaking about a number of plastic waste-related topics during a hearing on plastic pollution.
BASF and Greentown Labs selected five startups, including a plastics recycling company, to join the Circularity Challenge, a six-month accelerator program.
Investment management firm Circulate Capital, which focuses on ocean plastics solutions, created a nonprofit group called The Circulate Initiative.
Gerber partnered with TerraCycle to launch a recycling program for baby food packaging.
Sorting equipment company Tomra announced a commitment to enable 40% of plastic packaging produced globally each year to be collected for recycling by 2030.
The EPS Industry Alliance released its 2018 EPS Recycling Report, indicating that 39.7 million pounds of post-consumer EPS were recycled last year. The report does not give a recycling rate.
The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) launched ZeroWasteWorld.org.
The National Recycling Coalition and the California Resource Recovery Association will host a recycling market development workshop next month in Chula Vista, Calif.
A New York Assembly bill would implement recycled plastic mandates for all single-use containers, similar to a stalled proposal in California.
U.K. waste management firm Biffa called for a ban on exporting plastics from the U.K. An export ban, the company asserted, would encourage domestic plastics recycling.
Dow held #PullingOurWeight, an initiative to collect 100,000 pounds of waste at more than 100 sites around the world.
The Foodservice Packaging Institute announced that Natha Dempsey will serve as the association’s president beginning Nov. 1, replacing longtime leader Lynn Dyer. Dempsey currently serves as vice president.
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) announced the winners of its annual Plastics Industry Leadership Awards. Nova Chemicals employees received three awards.
Clorox announced a number of sustainability pledges, including that the company will cut its virgin plastic use in half by 2030.
Greenmantra commissioned a chemical recycling demonstration facility that will use polystyrene as a feedstock to produce specialty polymers.
NSF International began developing a “Recycled Material Standard” on behalf of environmental organization GreenBlue, which oversees the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
Resource Recycling, Inc., publisher of Resource Recycling, Plastics Recycling Update and E-Scrap News, created an FAQ page for people interested in submitting press releases and op-eds for publication.
Unilever pledged to reduce its plastic packaging by half, eliminating more than 100,000 metric tons of the materials. The company also vowed to accelerate its use of recycled plastic.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded engineering and consulting firm Tetra Tech a $48 million contract to boost marine plastics recovery and recycling in the developing world.
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste announced a partnership with Project STOP to support development of circular waste management systems in Indonesia.
The Foam Recycling Coalition awarded the Southeastern Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority (SOCRRA) of Michigan a $50,000 grant to buy a foam densifier.
Packaging production equipment company Krones has partnered with recycling equipment company Stadler to offer single-sourced, turnkey factories and jointly develop new technologies.
Tangent Technologies, a reclaimer that manufacturers recycled PE lumber, acquired one of its distributors, Vinyl Tech, and another wood-alternative products manufacturer, Home & Leisure.
The Recycling Partnership launched a Film and Flexibles Task Force, with Amazon, Dow, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble serving as anchor funders and advisers.
American Express and Parley for the Oceans will release a credit card made primarily from recycled ocean-bound plastic.
Aquafil announced that its Econyl recycled nylon contributes to LEED v4 points, which are used to gauge sustainability in building design.
Dart Container Corporation will sponsor all of Keep America Beautiful’s national “plogging” (picking up litter while jogging) initiatives, including the Keep America Beautiful Trash Dash.
PepsiCo announced its goal of reducing its use of virgin plastic in bottles by 35% by 2025. The company will do so by increasing its use of recycled plastic and by switching to alternative materials such as aluminum.
Bausch Health Companies released its corporate sustainability report, indicating it recycled contact lenses and packaging totaling over 55,000 pounds last year.
PepsiCo Recycling and author Jeff Kinney began a recycling outreach campaign geared towards children and young adults, called “Be Awesome! Recycle!”
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste appointed Jacob Duer as the organization’s first CEO. Duer most recently served as a program director for the U.N. Environment Programme.
Consumer goods manufacturer Henkel hosted U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., at the company’s Stamford, Conn. headquarters to discuss sustainability commitments and plastic packaging developments.
PE supplier Nova Chemicals appointed Sarah Marshall as the company’s director of sustainability. Marshall formerly served as chair of the board of directors for the Canadian Plastics Industry Association.
A majority interest of Shred-Tech was acquired by Heico, a holding company.
Van Dyk Recycling Solutions and the Association of Plastic Recyclers will hold a training conference on design-for-recyclability at the Van Dyk Technology and Material Test Center in Norwalk, Conn.
Government leaders in Ontario, Canada announced the Blue Box Program will transition to a full producer responsibility system by 2023.
Cleanfarms, which operates agricultural plastics recycling programs in Saskatchewan, reported the grain bag recycling volume is up 25% in 2019 compared with the entirety of 2018.
Novolex, which recycles film into new bags, launched the Novolex Supplier Code of Conduct.
The Container Recycling Institute published a response to the closure of rePlanet, California’s largest operator of container redemption centers.
Magnum, an ice cream brand owned by Unilever, began producing ice cream tubs made from recycled polypropylene.
Poland Spring and The Recycling Partnership launched the #NotTrash Instagram campaign.
Apparel producer Solgaard released a line of bags and backpacks made from recycled ocean-bound plastics.
Alpek Polyester, a major PET producer and recycler, joined The Recycling Partnership.
The Carolinas Plastics Recycling Council (CPRC) and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) will hold a joint meeting focused on plastics recycling, to be held Nov. 7-8 in Ft. Mill, S.C.
Investment management firm Circulate Capital opened a Singapore office and announced that CEO Rob Kaplan is relocating to the Southeast Asian country.
Research firm ICIS released its findings that the European recycling industry will miss its 2025 PET bottle recycling rate target of 77% unless stakeholders grow collection volumes.
The Plastics Industry Association selected Tony Radoszewski to be the organization’s next president and CEO. Radoszewski previously served as president of the Plastics Pipe Institute.
Alpek Polyester, a major PET producer and recycling company, joined The Recycling Partnership.
The Dallas Zoo will use the RightCycle Program, managed by Kimberly-Clark Professional, to divert nitrile gloves discarded by zoo employees.
A grant from the Foam Recycling Coalition enabled Otsego County, N.Y. to roll out an expanded polystyrene recycling program.
Delaware Gov. John Carney signed a single-use plastic bag ban that will take place in certain stores beginning in 2021.
The Product Stewardship Institute released a Packaging EPR Toolkit.
Unifi will provide recycling receptacles at the 2019 Wyndham Championship golf event this week. Collected PET bottles will be processed into Unifi’s Repreve recycled fiber.
Chemical recycling company Agilyx appointed Paolo Cuniberti to its board of directors. Cuniberti is founder and CEO of Habacus, an Italian company that connects students with financial resources.
The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) developed a bulletin to inform recycling stakeholders about recyclable packaging in the marketplace and packaging recyclability changes.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched a learning hub.
Petcore Europe created the PET Monomer Recycling Special Industry Group.
RecyClass, a recyclability testing initiative of Plastics Recyclers Europe, released a Recyclability Evaluation Protocol for HDPE containers.
Agilyx, INEOS Styrolution and Trinseo will collaborate to launch a PS chemical recycling operation in Europe.
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste has a dozen new members: EQUATE Petrochemical, Gemini Corporation, Grupo Phoenix, Mondi, Novolex, PepsiCo, Sealed Air Corporation, Sinopec, SKC, Storopack, TOMRA and Westlake Chemical.
Coca-Cola Japan announced a goal to increase its use of RPET in beverage containers to 50% by 2022 and 90% by 2030, up from the company’s current 17%.
Canadian plastics reclaimer Enviroplast will develop a processing facility in Vaughan, Ontario, with an estimated capacity of 24 million pounds per year.
The Foundation for Plastic Recycling, an initiative of the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), launched as an industry improvement organization focusing on research and investment.
Plastics producer NOVA Chemicals released its 2018 sustainability report, which touched on a number of recycling-related efforts.
Anchor Packaging, which uses RPET in some of its products, was acquired by the Jordan Co., a private equity firm.
Barco Uniforms, which produces healthcare apparel, announced it has used the equivalent of 16.8 million recycled plastic bottles as feedstock for two of its scrubs lines.
Berry Global signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.
Bottled water producer Evian introduced 100% recycled plastic water bottles at the Wimbledon tennis championships this year.
GreenMantra Technologies elected Donald Wiseman and Adam Shepherd to its board of directors.
Niagara Bottling, a private-label bottled water company, joined the How2Recycle recyclability labeling program.
The NYC Curb-To-Market Challenge (CTMC), which launched in March, named recovered plastics end user Arqlite and consultancy Anthropocene.Design as the winners of the contest.
PepsiCo will package its LIFEWTR water product in 100% recycled PET bottles, and the company will end plastic bottle packaging for its Bubly sparkling water, sticking to aluminum cans. The company will also test aluminum can packaging for Aquafina, which currently comes in plastic bottles.
Recycling and packaging firm Plastipak invested in a chemical recycling project with Italian company Garbo.
The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) announced Paul Booth, a longtime chemical industry executive, as its next president.