Glass Half Full broke ground on their new facility, which will give the grassroots glass recycling company the capacity to create cullet as well as sand. | Courtesy of Glass Half Full
Glass Half Full leaders knew the company needed a bigger facility as soon as they opened the first one. Now, as the concrete slab for a new space is poured on the coast of Louisiana, cofounder and CEO Franziska Trautmann is already imagining the three acres filled with glass.
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Revising its past years of OCC recycling rates, Bloomberg Intelligence is now estimating rates of 63% in 2022 and 66% in 2023. | Kenishirotie/Shutterstock
Bloomberg Intelligence has once again estimated a significantly lower OCC recycling rate than the paper manufacturing sector, and it revised past years’ rates with an updated methodology. Continue Reading
Fiber exports continued their multiyear downward trajectory overall, though Canada and Malaysia marked double-digit increases on the year. | F-Armstrong-Photography/Shutterstock
Recovered paper exports angled downwards during the first half of 2024, as major overseas buyers decreased their purchases by as much as 30% year over year. On the plastics side, more than half the material that left the U.S. stayed in North America.
The DRS redemption rate decreases ranged from 1% to 4%, with only two states tallying increases. | Kwangmoozaa/Shutterstock
New data from the Container Recycling Institute showed falling beverage container redemption rates in most states with deposit return systems in 2023, which advocates said shows the need to modernize aging systems.
Prices for all major curbside paper commodities held firm in August, bringing the second straight month without major changes in fiber values. It was a different story on the plastics side, where some grades saw major price fluctuations. 
July brought higher prices for bales of PET and natural HDPE containers, while color HDPE continued to slip downwards in value. On the fiber front, major grades maintained stable pricing after a long runup throughout the year. Continue Reading
Five large publicly traded North American haulers recently reported their second-quarter earnings. | LV Olga/Shutterstock
Rising commodity prices were a boon for major recycling operators in the second quarter of the year, and they’re now anticipating better full-year results than they initially expected.
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The two companies will stop selling products in Minnesota for two and a half years, can re-enter the market only if bags are clearly marked as non-recyclable, and will pay more than $200,000.
Walmart and Reynolds Consumer Products have reached settlements with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in a lawsuit over marketing language for bags labeled as “recycling bags.” Continue Reading
AMP’s systems combine color cameras and AI to improve sorting accuracy in MRFs, but the company founder said there are more ways to harness that power. | Marina Onokhina
Putting AI and robotics into a MRF is one thing. Designing a MRF with AI and robotics makes for an entirely different experience, according to AMP founder and CEO Matanya Horowitz. Continue Reading
Republic Services recovered 2.2 million tons of cardboard, metal, organics, paper and plastics in 2023. | Rhfletcher/Shutterstock
For a second consecutive year, waste hauler Republic Services recovered fewer tons of recyclable materials than in the previous year, according to the company’s 2023 ESG report. Continue Reading