Nearly 40% of surveyed CFOs and CEOs said that sustainability initiatives would be the first cut in tight financial times. | Jirapong Manustrong/Shutterstock
A survey of CEOs and chief financial officers suggested that when businesses are considering cuts amid current economic headwinds, sustainability initiatives are among the first to go.
Researchers found that plastics can offer lower greenhouse gas emissions than substitutes in a number of use cases. | VanderWolf/Shutterstock
The severe impact of plastic ocean pollution has long been recognized, but research firm McKinsey wants to inject some of plastic’s climate benefits into the collective materials usage discussion.
Using 2014 data from the U.S. EPA, researchers examined GHG benefits of recycling. | Lawrence Glass/Shutterstock
A new life cycle assessment quantifies the impacts of different curbside collection scenarios, concluding that a typical single-stream recycling program reduces overall emissions by almost 40% when compared with simply landfilling the material.
New developments in film and resin technology advance efficiency and circularity goals. | Alex Traksel/Shutterstock
Several companies have released new products that are pushing plastics recycling forward, including PCR-specific additives and 83% recycled content films. Here’s a roundup of innovation news. Continue Reading
An OECD report anticipates marine debris will increase significantly in volume over the next several decades. | Santiparp Wattanaporn/Shutterstock
Globally, discarded plastic levels could nearly triple by 2060, with about half of the plastic ending up in landfill and less than a fifth recycled, an OECD report projected.
Researchers at Rice University turned milled-together bumpers, gaskets, carpets, mats, seating and door casings from Ford F-150 pickup trucks into graphene. | mynewturtle/Shutterstock
An experiment by Rice University and Ford turned mixed plastic from old vehicles into graphene, which was then used in a polyurethane foam for new vehicles.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year provides about $350 million to the U.S. EPA over several years to fund recycling infrastructure and education grants. | RozenskiP/Shutterstock
The U.S. EPA is working to build several grant programs from the ground up thanks to an influx of money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and it is reaching out to stakeholders to make sure the programs will meet industry needs.
The report discusses investments that would need to occur in terms of scrap plastic collection and sorting, existing impediments to scaling up chemical recycling and more. | David Gyung/Shutterstock
If $40 billion were invested in chemical recycling technologies and certain constraints were resolved, chemical recycling processes could satisfy 4-8% of total polymer demand by 2030, according to a new analysis.
Federal researchers found study also found that only about 5% of discarded plastic in the U.S. was recycled in 2019, while 86% was left in landfills and 9% was burned to generate electricity. | Huguette Roe/Shutterstock
A study from the U.S. Department of Energy estimated the amount of plastic discarded in the U.S. in 2019 was 44 million metric tons, higher than other estimates.
The state of New York will direct millions of dollars toward plastics recycling research at the University at Buffalo. | Credit: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
New York state officials awarded the University at Buffalo $4.5 million to create a research center for improving plastic recycling.