Just over 1 billion pounds of post-consumer bag and film plastics were recovered in 2018. | Pavel Kubarkov/Shutterstock
The amount of U.S. film and non-bottle rigids collected for recycling decreased in 2018, but domestic processors took in more of the material, according to More Recycling.
Large rigid plastics were among the materials recycled in a research project directed by AIMPLAS. | Vershinin89/Shutterstock
The Spanish plastics research institute AIMPLAS has written about a project through which plastics from bulky items were recycled into products using a variety of technologies.
A new film from Amcor can be used in spouted pouches, flow wraps and other types of packaging. | GO DESIGN/Shutterstock
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.