Tomra CEO Stefan Ranstrand shared his perspective on what’s needed to usher in a circular economy. | Courtesy of Tomra.
The leader of a global recycling equipment company says improved processing infrastructure will be vital to the industry’s future. But collaboration among all stakeholders is just as important.
Challenges remain to scaling up TPO bumper collection to a national scale. | Kaentian Street/Shutterstock
TPO bumper covers can be processed into a high-quality recycled pellet that’s cheaper than virgin plastic, but challenges remain in feedstock collection and preparation.
Historically, companies have used post-consumer resin (PCR) because it was a lower cost feedstock than virgin. In recent years, however, pricing for virgin plastic (mostly “wide spec” resin) has fallen below that of PCR (mostly high quality PCR that is suitable for food contact).
A number of companies received approval to use their recycling technology to produce recycled plastic for use in food and drink packaging.| Somsak21/Shutterstock
A company was given the go-ahead to recycle post-consumer PET into multi-layer reheatable food trays. Meanwhile, a global packaging company was OK’d to recycle LDPE films into reusable bags.
The U.S. has become a focus of investment for a small yet growing portion of the Chinese scrap processing industry. Backers of two in-development operations note they are looking for regulatory stability and a strong supply of recyclables.
Juri Freeman of Resource Recycling Systems (left) moderated a plastics-focused panel consisting of (from left to right) Michael Sangiacomo of Recology, Zeina El-Azzi of Brightmark Energy, Kate Bailey of Eco-Cycle and Tim Ponrathnam of Berry Global. | Resource Recycling Conference/Brian Adams Photography
Should some types of single-use plastic be banned? Or is infrastructure improvement a better answer to current plastic waste concerns? A varied group of industry leaders tackled those questions last week.
Dow is recognized for a polyurethane foam chemical recycling technology, and a project testing invisible packaging markers to improve optical sorting wraps up.
Photo provided by Milliken shows the results of the use of Millad NX 8000 clarifier.
A market-dominating polypropylene clarifier has undergone testing to prove that it neither complicates the plastics recycling process nor harms the finished product.
Some readers challenged the environmental benefit of Arqlite’s plastic gravel product. | Via Arqlite’s Instagram page.
A startup won money and media attention for its recycled plastic gravel, but some readers are concerned the product could cause more environmental harm than simply landfilling the scrap plastic.
An update on the flow of scrap plastics to India captured attention last month. | Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
Articles about India’s scrap plastics import ban, a sorting project in Oregon and manufacturers’ usage of recycled plastic drew readers’ attention last month.