The recycling industry has not escaped the fallout from a tight trucking market. Recent regulatory movement and a growing driver shortage have contributed to rising freight costs, just months after extreme weather impacted the shipping sector.
Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].The recycling industry has not escaped the fallout from a tight trucking market. Recent regulatory movement and a growing driver shortage have contributed to rising freight costs, just months after extreme weather impacted the shipping sector.
Recyclables exported out of the U.S. are moving to Southeast Asia, where reclaimers and mills are dramatically increasing purchases as China closes its doors to recovered materials. New figures illustrate that shift.
Colorado’s recycling advocates have taken on a new strategy aimed at boosting the state’s diversion rate. Over the past year, the Colorado Association for Recycling identified key goals and specific actions it will take to attain them, according to the group’s director.
Certain tools such as pay-as-you-throw pricing and multi-family requirements have produced compelling diversion results in communities across the country. Leaders of several programs recently shared advice for colleagues who hope to achieve similar success.
A shuttered mixed-waste MRF has been sold to the city of Montgomery, Ala., and multiple companies are interested in running the facility either as a traditional MRF or mixed-waste plant.
A representative from a European firm that has felt the direct impacts of China’s import restrictions on recovered plastic recently offered an inside look at the fallout from the unprecedented disruption to industry trade.
Waste and recycling haulers had slightly fewer fatal workplace injuries in 2016 than the year earlier, according to figures from the federal government.
Chinese plastics recycling companies are considering processing infrastructure investments in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and elsewhere.
An overhaul of the federal tax system was signed into law last month, ushering in major changes in how businesses throughout the recycling industry are taxed. At the same time, impacts may be felt at recycling nonprofit groups as some analysts predict declines in charitable giving.
The global recovered paper market experienced “a quite challenging year” in 2017, according to an expert at paper industry research firm RISI. And those challenges are only expected to continue as Chinese import restrictions ramp up.