Marissa 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].
Coming from inside the ranks of the state agency, Zoe Heller was appointed director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery. | Rarrarorro/Shutterstock
California’s sizable waste reduction and recycling agency has a new leader in Zoe Heller, who was recently appointed director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery. Industry leaders praised her integrity, thoughtfulness and collaboration skills. Continue Reading
Five big North American haulers recently reported their first quarter earnings. | Janossy Gergely/Shutterstock
Publicly traded recycling collectors saw bale prices rise in the first quarter, contributing to higher revenues and a positive outlook for the year ahead.
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The week of negotiations had moments of both hope and frustration for delegates, who are racing against the clock to create a final treaty. | Photo courtesy of IISD/ENB Kiara Worth
The fourth meeting to draft a global plastic pollution treaty ended just after 3 a.m. on April 30 with general agreement on the need for global rules and mandates on product design, composition, performance and extended producer responsibility.
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act AB 5322 in the Assembly Codes committee and its companion bill, SB 4246, is in the Senate finance committee. | robert-paul-van-beet/Shutterstock
New York legislators are once again pushing to become the fifth state in the U.S. to implement extended producer responsibility for packaging.
From left: Dan Leif, Holli Alexander and Candace Rutherford. | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling
This story has been corrected.
Chemical recyclers are forging partnerships, eyeing underutilized material streams and getting creative to secure enough supply to feed their ambitious plans, according to leaders in the sector. Continue Reading
Atlantic Coast Recycling’s new facility can process over 50 tons of recyclables per hour. | Courtesy of Atlantic Coast Recycling
Atlantic Coast Recycling reopened its recycling processing facility in Passaic, New Jersey, after a year-long redevelopment totaling $47 million. Continue Reading
Statistics Canada released a detailed breakdown of the material diverted from landfill in 2022 and if it was generated by residential or non-residential sources. | Siwakorn1933/Shutterstock
A recent analysis from the Canadian government found that, in 2022, Canadian households and businesses diverted 9.9 million metric tons of material, the same as in 2020. Of that amount, about 3.6 million tons were paper fibers. Continue Reading
After a 2022 program overhaul allowed most retailers to opt out of deposit system container collection, a report from Cleaner Iowa found that there are 29 counties without a redemption center. | Veja/Shutterstock
Overhauls to Iowa’s bottle bill in 2022 that allowed retailers to opt out of collection are reducing access, as industry players warned when the bill passed. But redemption centers are stepping up to help solve the problem – including by launching a new bag drop program. Continue Reading
The study included over 23,000 units of certified food-contact compostable packaging in 10 large-scale industrial composting environments, tested over 18 months. | Yuriy Golub
Overall, compostable packaging breaks down successfully at composting facilities, an 18-month study from the Composting Consortium found. Continue Reading
The fourth United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting will be held in Ottawa, Canada, April 21-30. | Nexus 7/Shutterstock
The penultimate meeting to draft a global plastic pollution treaty kicks off this week in Ottawa, Canada, and stakeholders say there’s a lot riding on this fourth meeting.
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