Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Greif CEO Peter Watson noted that closure plans for the company’s Mobile, Ala. facility date back to before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. | hxdyl/Shutterstock
Three paper companies recently closed facilities that use recycled material. Two framed the shutdowns as part of longer-term “optimization” plans, and the third said it is a direct response to the COVID-19 impact on demand.
In Connecticut, retail redemption volumes were down 95% during the suspension period. | Thiago Figueredo/Shutterstock
Container deposit programs are starting back up following their COVID-19 downtime. Equipment supplier Tomra offered a look at how the process is playing out in Connecticut.
Researchers collected and sorted through more than 38,000 pounds of mixed recyclables from 173 sample loads. | Rubens Alarcon/Shutterstock
Researchers have quantified contamination in the business recycling stream in the Portland, Ore. metropolitan area, providing data that can be used to make operational or outreach decisions.
Boise will send materials to a Utah cement manufacturer on a temporary basis until September. | Charles Knowles/Shutterstock
Boise, Idaho will send hard-to-recycle plastics to be used as fuel for a cement manufacturing operation in Utah, after being without a solid downstream market for more than a year.
In several communities of varying sizes around the country recycling programs are facing cuts due to budget constraints. | John-Fs-Pic/Shutterstock
It’s too early to say how big of a hole COVID-19 will punch in municipal budgets. But communities are already facing tough decisions about how to allocate limited resources, and in some cases, recycling isn’t making the cut.
Once stay-at-home orders and business closures took hold across the U.S., OCC generation declined very sharply. | AdamBoor/Shutterstock
The coronavirus pandemic has sharply diminished OCC collection from established commercial channels and some residential programs. An analyst describes how the virus hit the paper sector, and mill operators offer perspective on how they’re reacting.
Industry group American Forest & Paper Association announced that in the U.S. market 49 million short tons of fiber products were recycled in 2019.| franz12/Shutterstock
Export market turmoil caused a lower recycling rate for paper and paperboard in 2019, an industry group announced. The decline comes after a record year for paper recycling in 2018.
Connecticut will begin a phased-in deposit program resumption on May 20. | monticello/Shutterstock
Connecticut retailers will begin accepting deposit containers on a limited basis this week and will ramp up to full service early next month. COVID-19 disruptions to deposit programs continue in other states.
Each of Looptworks’ reusable masks are made from 100% post-industrial materials. | Courtesy of Looptworks
A small manufacturer recently began using post-industrial materials to produce masks for the COVID-19 response.
