Amcor’s 2022 sustainability report also noted that 74% of Amcor’s total production by weight is now designed to be recycled and it has made a 33% reduction in material sent to disposal over the past three years. | 360b/Shutterstock
After several years of gains in recycled content usage, Amcor is setting a new recycled content goal of 30% by 2030, tripling its previous target.
As it looks to build its third chemical recycling facility in the U.S., Eastman is forging partnerships with PepsiCo and P&G to receive its processed PET. | Postmodern Studio/Shutterstock
Chemical recycler Eastman will be supplying PepsiCo with processed PET under a new offtake agreement.
Ascend recently launched a sustainable polyamides line called ReDefyne and needed a stronger supply chain. | Gajus/Shutterstock
Ascend Performance Materials purchased a majority stake in California-based Circular Polymers for an undisclosed amount, giving Ascend a more consistent supply of PCR.
Nationwide PET reclaimer Evergreen has installed advanced sorting equipment at its Riverside, Calif. facility over the past year. | Courtesy of Google Maps
Two reclaimers have recently made or are planning multi-million-dollar upgrades at their California PET recycling facilities. The following are details on the projects by Evergreen and Peninsula Plastics Recycling.
California’s plastic quality incentive payment (QIP) program offers $180 per ton for clean PET bales. | MarieKaz/Shutterstock
California last year started a unique program of providing cash payments to materials recovery facilities that produce ultra-clean PET bottle bales. Recently released data suggest the payments aren’t juicy enough morsels.
A tandem chemical and biological process that draws from decades-old studies on chemical oxidation can be used to break down a variety of plastic types. | PowerUp/Shutterstock
Researchers have developed a way to turn mixed polymer plastics into a single chemical product, which could potentially eliminate the need to sort plastic by type prior to recycling.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required thermoform-to-thermoform recycling. | Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock
Following industry pushback, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have mandated the use of some level of post-consumer resin in thermoform food and drink packaging.
Berry Global and Mars, Inc. have introduced candy packaging with 15% PCR. | Courtesy of Berry Global
Packaging producer Berry Global and brand owner Mars, Inc. are now putting PCR into plastic containers used for M&M’s and other confection brands.
TOP LUN Plastics Corporation received an LNO that covers the recycling of PET containers into single-layer clamshells. | Rattanapon Ninlapoom/Shutterstock
Ten companies with technologies to recycle post-consumer PET, HDPE and PP into food and drink packaging have received the federal government’s thumbs-up this year.
Thermoforms like those shown here often contain post-consumer material from bottles, but a California bill would require post-consumer thermoforms to be used in production of new thermoforms. | Anakumka/Shutterstock
Current debate over a California bill requiring PET thermoforms to contain RPET derived from thermoforms boils down to one question: What will materials recovery facilities do?