Marissa Heffernan worked at Resource Recycling from January 2022 through June 2025, first as staff reporter and then as associate editor. Marissa Heffernan started working for Resource Recycling in January 2022 after spending several years as a reporter at a daily newspaper in Southwest Washington. After developing a special focus on recycling policy, they were also the editor of the monthly newsletter Policy Now.
The amended bill no longer includes EPR goals, and instead calls for several assessments and analyses of recycling in the state. | Mihai Andritoiu/Shutterstock
Legislation that started as a proposal to bring extended producer responsibility for packaging to Maryland is now on the governor’s desk. But its current text mandates a study, not an actual EPR system. Continue Reading
Speakers at the NERC Spring 2023 Conference offered advice on achieving diversity, equity and inclusion goals. | Light Spring/Shutterstock
Hard conversations, checking unconscious bias and letting employees drive change with leadership’s support are all vital to building more diverse workforces, experts recently explained.
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Deposit containers collected in Oregon at the OBRC sorting facility outside Portland. | Dan Leif/Resource Recycling
Oregon residents turned in over 2 billion beverage containers in 2022, an 88.5% preliminary redemption rate for one of the country’s most successful bottle and can redemption systems. Continue Reading
The mandate’s implementation would follow a rolling timeline, taking effect in Queens before expanding to the city’s other boroughs. | Gorloff KV/Shutterstock
America’s largest city proposed making the source separation of yard material mandatory and allowing commingling of organic scraps with the yard debris. Continue Reading
Bagged recyclables cause major headaches for MRFs, so the state of Washington wants to teach people to fill their bins with loose items. | Alexander Lukatskiy/Shutterstock
MRF operators and state officials are working to persuade residents in Washington state to keep plastic film out of the curbside stream.
The agreement will see post-consumer glass reprocessed into pozzolan, which is one of cement’s key ingredients. | OVKNHR/Shutterstock
A partnership between Progressive Planet and Recycle BC will open up a new end market for post-consumer glass in British Columbia. Continue Reading
Opponents of the bill argue chemical recycling is a form of incineration; supporters say it will create jobs and help address plastic waste. | 9DreamStudio/Shutterstock
A bill extending a deadline for a potential chemical recycling pilot project in Illinois is reigniting debate over how to regulate chemical recycling.
An artist’s rendering of WM’s upcoming Florida facility. | Courtesy of WM
WM says its major MRF project north of Miami is set to be completed in early 2025.
The average price of a ton of material in Q4 of 2022 was 28% less than in the previous quarter. | ADragan/Shutterstock
The blended average price of recovered material dropped again in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a recent market report. Continue Reading
Paper markets are a mixed bag, with some producers completing or nearing completion on new mills and others wrestling with flagging sales. | Huguette Roe/Shutterstock
Cascades is very close to reopening a Virginia mill that has gone through a containerboard conversion, and Domtar has completed a $350 million project in Tennessee.