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According to the European Commission, an estimated 100 billion plastic carrier bags are used in the European Union every year – an average of almost 200 bags per capita. Around 90 percent of these are lightweight bags (thinner than 0.05 millimeters), and most are used only once before being thrown away.
A coalition of public and private partners have formed the Ontario Circular Economy Innovation Lab (CEIL), an effort to coordinate recycling and packaging stakeholders.
Starting in October, shoppers in America’s largest city will be charged a nickel for each paper or plastic bag they are given at checkout.
The mayor of Chicago presented his 2017 budget proposal to the City Council last week and it includes a 7-cent fee on all paper and plastic bags given out at stores.
A statewide ban on local bag bans is close to becoming law in Michigan. Senate Bill 853 prohibits local governments from banning plastic shopping bags or mandating fees for them. The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature.
Carey Hamilton
Carey Hamilton, executive director of the Indiana Recycling Coalition and a board member of the National Recycling Coalition, has succeeded in her bid for a seat in the legislature.
The Sustainable Materials Management Coalition (SMMC) released a report recently on how to maximize a product’s environmental benefits throughout its life cycle. Continue Reading
Seattle collectors will no longer be allowed to flip the lid on residential garbage cans to look for banned compostables.
Education has won out over punishment in Little Rock, Ark., with hauler Waste Management announcing it will no longer track the households that are placing unacceptable materials into curbside recycling carts.
A second study from manufacturers of food packaging aims to drive home the point that the products from those companies are not too contaminated for curbside recycling.
The recently conducted effort from the Foodservice Packaging Institute follows the first segment of the report, which was released at the end of last year.
The latest research looked at a sampling of 2,600 pounds of residential recyclables collected in southern Delaware. Researchers separated the material into two categories – foodservice packaging and other packaging in contact with food – and then went through the loads on an item-by-item basis. Products were given one of three ratings: high food residue contamination, medium or low.
The two categories proved to have roughly the same proportion of low- and high-level contaminated products, according to FPI’s report. The foodservice packaging had a slightly higher proportion of medium-level contamination.
FPI’s earlier study, which looked at samples collected in Boston, found roughly similar contamination levels across the board when looking at foodservice packaging and other materials that came into contact with food residue. Together, FPI stated, the two studies indicate tubs, lids and other material categories in the foodservice realm should be regularly included in residential recycling streams.
“One of the most common reasons that municipal programs do not accept foodservice packaging is the concern about increased levels of food contamination in recyclables,” Lynn M. Dyer, president of FPI, said in a press release. “The encouraging results of the Delaware study provide us a different representative sample of food residue on foodservice packaging. They assist in corroborating our findings of foodservice packaging residue as a perceived barrier in recycling programs rather than a real obstacle.”