MRF company ReCommunity and Ann Arbor, Mich. have agreed to settle their legal dispute without an award of money to either party.
MRF company ReCommunity and Ann Arbor, Mich. have agreed to settle their legal dispute without an award of money to either party.
The U.S. OCC market plummeted last week as China substantially slows its recovered material imports. Inside China, the lack of import capability has driven domestic OCC prices sky high.
China’s import policy changes are forcing U.S. recycling companies to seek adjustments to municipal contracts, stockpile materials and even landfill recyclables.
Experts in product stewardship convened in Montreal last week to review the opportunities and challenges confronting current materials recovery initiatives.
State recycling money is on the chopping block in Pennsylvania, the latest arena in which legislators look to draw from recycling support funds as a way to balance the state budget.
One report indicates that buyers in China are desperately seeking domestic sources of recovered paper. Meanwhile, low-value plastics are flooding the European market, but processors there have limited ability to handle those loads.
DJ VanDeusen of WestRock speaks at the Resource Recycling Conference.
Some of the key recovered commodities generated by materials recovery facilities have been fetching high prices lately, including aluminum and fibers. But China’s import restrictions have introduced an element of the unknown in the market.
California lawmakers have sent the governor a bill mandating that carpet stewards achieve a 24 percent recycling rate and discouraging the use of incineration. Meanwhile, carpet makers are sticking with their beleaguered stewardship group, instead of submitting alternative collection and recycling plans.
The world’s largest retailer underreported the number of containers it distributed over a three-year period in California, leading to $7.2 million in unpaid deposits to the state. The balance was paid in full late last year after it was revealed during an audit.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that 40 percent of municipalities included in a research set have programs aimed at diversion of food material. And those cities are not all in regions considered hotbeds of environmentalism.