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.
IBM has a goal to recover more PET from highly contaminated streams. | Credit: Wall Street Journal video.
Three different chemistry-based processes for recovering plastics have recently grabbed attention, illustrating the wide range of stakeholders working to find solutions beyond mechanical recycling.
Argentina-based Arqlite’s first gravel products were sold to customers earlier this year. | Courtesy of Arqlite.
Consulting firm B-Green was helping consumer brand owners reduce waste to landfill, but the companies’ packaging lacked a diversion solution. So B-Green went to work developing a recycling technology and end product.
London, Ontario has a goal of 60% waste diversion by the end of 2022. | Wei Seah/Shutterstock
London, Ontario approved a grant for a Hefty EnergyBag program, making it the first Canadian city to embrace the program for collecting hard-to-recycle plastics.
After paper recycling companies extract fiber from cartons, they’re often left with a plastic-aluminum mix that’s sent to disposal. An Italian company has begun recycling that mix into pellets.
A grant from Hefty EnergyBag will allow Renewlogy to grow its staff to process more material. | Courtesy of Hefty EnergyBag
A program designed to collect hard-to-recycle plastics curbside is angling to send more materials to a site run by startup Renewlogy in Salt Lake City.
Colgate-Palmolive has developed a toothpaste tube that passed tests for sortability by materials recovery facilities and processability by plastics reclaimers.
A new Tomra system adds laser technology to the sort line, increasing product purity without slowing throughput.
Electronics and appliances present an attractive source for reclaimed plastics, but technical challenges can often inhibit recovery. Many of the e-plastics are black, which can make separation by polymer difficult.