Chemical recycling uses different processes to break plastics down into other chemicals, which can be used to make fuels, new plastics or many other products. | Vershinin89/Shutterstock
A report from activist organization GAIA claims processing strategies that have been heavily promoted by the polymer industry amount to a “greenwashing tactic” undermining efforts to ban single-use plastics.
Major companies have launched an initiative to explore single-use plastic bag design. | daizuoxin/Shutterstock
Target, Walmart and others are working with Closed Loop Partners on a $15 million project to explore alternatives to traditional plastic bags in the retail sector.
Industry groups want the federal government to add a variety of recycled-plastic products into federal procurement guidelines. | Suttipong Prangsuwan/Shutterstock
As the U.S. EPA updates its lists of recycled-content products purchased by federal agencies, plastics recycling stakeholders are making their voices heard.
Ring Container Technologies began exploring and developing a PET canister to replace traditional composite can formats early in 2017. The first SmartCANs were shipped in June 2018. | Courtesy of Ring Container Technologies.
Ring Container Technologies wanted to understand the curbside recyclability of an all-PET container versus its existing polycoated paperboard canister. So it asked recycling programs themselves.
Among the recycling challenges with PET thermoforms are non-PET look-alike packaging and greater fines generation during the recycling process. | BravissimoS/Shutterstock
Several recycling industry trade associations will collaborate on a study to try to move the needle on recovery of PET thermoforms.
According to The Recycling Partnership, single-family households in the U.S. may be generating as much as 1.6 billion pounds of recyclable PP scrap each year. | Sodel Vladyslav/Shutterstock
An initiative from The Recycling Partnership will provide millions of dollars in capital to help sorting facilities install equipment for PP recovery.
Based on the lab-scale research, the Plastics Industry Association is now working with several companies to use a recycled-PE binder in asphalt on privately funded roadways and parking lots. | Marcel Derweduwen/Shutterstock
Research shows post-consumer PE film could improve the stiffness and resistance of polymer-modified asphalt at less cost than the co-polymers that are typically used.
The RecyClass platform is focused on encouraging producers to sell packaging that’s compatible with current plastics recycling processes and technologies. | Africa Studio/Shutterstock
A European trade association has published step-by-step guides allowing packaging producers to rate the recyclability of their products and receive a certification.
Investments by Closed Loop Partners have touched plastics recycling in a number of ways. | Chones/Shutterstock
Brand owners and corporate foundations have pledged another $54 million to the Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund, money that will go toward supporting recycling in the U.S.
Researchers in Florida have noticed a gradual increase in contamination rates in recent years. | Blueee77/Shutterstock
Materials recovery facilities in Florida have historically landfilled about one-quarter of the weight that comes in the door, according to a study commissioned by the Florida Recycling Partnership Foundation.