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Author Archives: Marissa Heffernan

About Marissa Heffernan

Marissa HeffernanMarissa Heffernan started working for Resource Recycling in January 2022 after spending several years as a reporter at a daily newspaper in Southwest Washington. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Judge: City must pay after deceiving citizens on recycling

Published: August 8, 2022
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Court gavel on a desk.

Fort Smith, Ark.’s department of sanitation must pay $745,057 to the residents it misled. | Zolnierek/Shutterstock

An Arkansas judge ruled that a city sanitation department needed to pay restitution after landfilling material that should have been recycled and admonished the city for breaking the trust of its residents.

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Canada eyes federal plastics registry, labeling rules

Published: August 8, 2022
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Canadian flag against blue sky background.

Proposed regulations in Canada would limit the use of the chasing-arrows symbol among other provisions. | Alexander Sviridov/Shutterstock

The Canadian government will develop rules for recyclability and compostability labeling and establish a federal plastics registry for producers of plastic products.

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How2Recycle returns PP to ‘widely recycled’ level

Published: August 1, 2022
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Grocery store shelf showing polypropylene yogurt tubs.

Polypropylene rigid containers have been upgraded to “widely recycled” under the How2Recycle labeling protocol. | Colleen Michaels/Shutterstock

Two years after downgrading rigid polypropylene containers to “check locally,” a label system has returned the material to its previous status, determining at least 60% of the country has access to PP collection.

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State legislators explain why they’re drawn to EPR

Published: August 1, 2022
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Documents stacked in an office.

Legislators recently spoke about their challenges and successes with EPR legislation. | Banlai/Shutterstock

Four state-level elected officials who have worked on extended producer responsibility bills for packaging recently discussed how they became champions of recycling policy and offered tips to help advance legislation.

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Recycling and composting bills pass Senate

Published: August 1, 2022
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View of the U.S. capitol in Washington, D.C.

The industry-supported bills would establish a grant program and mandate better reporting. | Orhan Cam/Shutterstock

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed two bills that would improve rural recycling and composting accessibility as well as boost data collection, sending the legislation to the House for a vote.

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How new California law is ‘putting the industry on notice’

Published: July 6, 2022
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California state building

New legislation evokes varied reactions among industry and activists. | Michael Warwick/Shutterstock

Industry leaders mostly expressed support for California’s recently signed extended producer responsibility bill, though some said they still had concerns about its far reach. Continue Reading

How different diversion systems stack up on GHG emissions

Published: July 26, 2022
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Curbside recycling

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.

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Steel Dynamics to build $2.2B aluminum recycling complex

Published: July 26, 2022
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Aluminum beverage cans for recycling.

A $2.2 billion investment will bring aluminum recycling facilities to the Southwestern and Southeastern United States and north-central Mexico. | Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock

A metals manufacturer is planning to build a massive aluminum flat rolled mill in North America to supply the automotive and packaging industries with recycled-content material.

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