Resource Recycling keeps you on top of critical industry trends and brings unparalleled analysis of the evolving materials stream, market turbulence, policy trends and more.
Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletters to receive the latest news directly.
As 2024 wound to close, major plastic resin producers were hit with two similar recycling-related class-action lawsuits – the latest in a growing trend of pursuing legal means of recouping costs for plastic pollution. | Zolnierek/Shutterstock
ExxonMobil on Monday filed a lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alleging that he and several environmental groups defamed the global oil and chemical company “for politics, publicity and private gain.” Continue Reading
Colorado’s Circular Economy Development Center’s Circular Transportation Network is using a “milk run” model to allow small communities access to recycling end markets. | Milos Muller/Shutterstock
A project to give rural Colorado communities access to recycling is ready to begin running truck routes later this month. Continue Reading
A new report indicates that local recycling budgets have tightened over the past 10 years amid changes in collection volumes, flat grant amounts and volatile commodity pricing. | Digital Reflections/Shutterstock
The portion of recycling costs covered by state aid has decreased, while costs have edged higher and OCC recycling has more than doubled, according to a new report from a state policy research group.
Continue Reading
While overall workplace fatalities decreased in the U.S. in 2023, the waste and recycling industry was a troubling outlier. | Wave Break Media/Shutterstock
Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Nine workers died in U.S. materials recovery facilities in 2023 and the death rate for refuse and recyclable material collectors jumped more than 80%, according to the latest annual numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continue Reading
Minnesota lawmakers approved an EPR bill during the 2024 legislative session, and the governor signed it into law in May. | Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Stakeholders behind Minnesota’s successful extended producer responsibility push said it was clear that radical change was needed in the state’s recycling system, during a recent webinar. Continue Reading
Tennessee State Sen. Heidi Campbell is re-introducing a packaging EPR bill crafted to gain Republican and business support. | RebeccaDLev/Shutterstock
A Tennessee lawmaker is reintroducing an extended producer responsibility bill for packaging – with some twists, in an attempt to get it through the Republican-controlled Legislature. Continue Reading
A recent study in California found that in 2023, 2.9 million tons of plastic were used in single-use packaging and food-related items, made up of 171.4 billion plastic components. | Marina Onokhina/Shutterstock
The recyclability and compostability of materials covered under California’s extended producer responsibility law for packaging got an update recently, as did the baseline for single-use plastic reduction. Continue Reading
Secondary sortation will continue to play a role in the recycling value chain, panelists said. | Dan Holtmeyer/Resource Recycling
With MRFs becoming ever more sophisticated and AI and robotics providing customizable levels of materials sortation, chemical recycling feedstock provides the most promising end market for secondary sorting, according to panelists at the recent Resource Recycling Conference. Continue Reading