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.
Deaths related to mechanical incidents topped the list of causes for the first time since SWANA began collecting fatality data. | YES Market Media/Shutterstock
Waste industry worker fatalities rose to 46 in 2022, a nearly 65% increase over the prior year.
The estimate was derived using data from the U.S. EPA and industry associations APR and NAPCOR. | Photka/Shutterstock
A report from the U.S. Plastics Pact found a national recycling rate of 13.3% for plastic packaging and an overall potentially recyclable, reusable or compostable rate of 36% for Pact members.
Kruger packaging aims to produce 200,000 tons of recycled material each year at its facility in Place Turcot, Québec. | BAO Images Bildagentur/Shutterstock
Kruger Packaging will manufacture 100% recycled saturating kraft board after it modernizes a Montreal mill. Continue Reading
Part of the plant’s funding comes from a $200,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. | Eammee/Shutterstock
Glass recycling company Aero Aggregates is planning a new facility in Massachusetts to process glass bottles into foamed aggregate for construction.
So far, 21 states have passed laws classifying chemical recycling as manufacturing rather than waste disposal, changing the emissions laws the processes are subject to. | Rosemarie Mosteller/Shutterstock
Over 70 organizations and businesses signed a letter to New Mexico’s governor last week, asking her not to classify chemical recycling as recycling. Continue Reading
Redwood’s McCarran, Nev. campus will eventually produce about 100,000 metric tons of cathode active materials each year. | Allyson Kitts/Shutterstock
Redwood Materials has secured a major loan from the federal government, with some strings attached, to help build out its Nevada lithium-ion battery recycling campus.
Impacts on low-income residents drove the Vancouver, British Columbia city council to rethink its fee on single-use cups. | yy Apartment/Shutterstock
A year after it went into effect, Vancouver, British Columbia is moving to end its 25-cent fee on single-use coffee cups.
Gresham, Ore.’s educational materials explaining the new curbside battery recycling system to residents. | Courtesy of the city of Gresham, Ore.
Clackamas County, Ore. is the latest county in the state to adopt a different approach to battery collection and fire prevention.
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Small plastic items such as travel shampoo bottles often cannot be processed at MRFs. | Kris Black/Shutterstock
Five brands have partnered with a nonprofit and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to find a way to keep small plastic items in the recycling stream.
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Wampologoma residents receive clean water provided by Kubi for Hope. | Courtesy of Kubi for Hope
Denis Kweri was looking for a way to raise money to build wells and schools in his hometown, and aluminum cans were his solution.
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