Experts from PMMI, the Flexible Packaging Association and more offered insight into the roadblocks and projections for implementing recycled content. | Antoinette Smith/Resource Recycling, Inc.
As companies work toward meeting regulatory requirements for sustainable packaging, they will significantly increase usage of post-consumer resin, compostable materials and certified recycled paperboard, an industry analyst said at Pack Expo International this week in Chicago. Continue Reading
California’s extended producer responsibility for packaging law, SB 54, just completed another round of public comment. | Alexander Lukatskiy/Shutterstock
Industry players said the latest draft of California’s extended producer responsibility for packaging permanent regulations is an improvement, but there is always more work to be done when it comes to complex policy implementation. Continue Reading
Compost Power uses metroStor bins to collect organics without attracting rats and has added its own graphic wraps to the bins to engage the community. | Gargonia/Shutterstock
Setting up successful organics diversion – whether statewide or just in one city – requires creativity, flexibility and a strong education campaign, presenters at WasteCon 2024 told attendees. Continue Reading
The industry-led Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag conducted a three-month pilot project that implemented store signage, enlisted employees to help effect behavior change and included out-of-store marketing. | Photo by Nick Pizzolato
When retail stores encouraged consumers to bring their own bags or opt out of using one, nearly 5% fewer single-use plastic bags were used, according to a report from the industry-led Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag. Continue Reading
Glass package transparency is key to ensuring proper sortation in a MRF, according to a recent study from glass recycling and packaging stakeholders. | Pornpawit/Shutterstock
A major recycled glass processor teamed up with a cosmetics giant to identify how cosmetics packaging is sorted in MRFs and which attributes are impeding greater recycling. Their findings offer suggestions for material design. Continue Reading
Glass packaging giant Ardagh in June notified Washington state authorities it would shut down its Seattle container plant, removing a local end market. | DimaSid/Shutterstock
After a bottle production plant in Seattle shuttered over the summer, a local glass beneficiation facility has lost demand for its cullet, leaving multiple area recycling programs without a downstream outlet for their glass. Continue Reading
Rebound members can now trade more recycled materials on the platform, including plastics, metal, glass, OCC and e-scrap. | New Africa/Shutterstock
After starting in plastics, an online recycled material trading platform is expanding into glass, metal, rubber, OCC and paper and will soon add e-scrap. Continue Reading
To hit its recycling goals, by 2030 the recycling industry will need to double the amount of glass it recovers nationally compared with where it was in around 2020. | Josep Curto/Shutterstock
Although glass has its share of unique challenges in the recycling system, brand owners in the glass space are facing all-too-familiar hurdles in figuring out how they’ll hit 2030 recycling and recycled content goals. Continue Reading
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery on Oct. 14 opened a 15-day written comment period on permanent regulations for the state’s EPR program. | Jonathan-Lenz/Shutterstock
Producers, recyclers and the public have another chance to comment on California’s SB 54 extended producer responsibility for packaging permanent regulations.
Mixed paper and OCC sank by 21% and 16%, respectively, this month, marking a pivot from a long runup that plateaued over the summer. Curbside plastic price trends varied by grade.