The latest permit figures from the Chinese government illustrate the country’s goals to continue reducing its recycled fiber intake.
Over the past 12 months, plummeting fiber prices have hamstrung programs and recycling operators across North America. Little surprise then that analysis of that trend grabbed significant attention from our readers.
A local program in a populous area of northern Virginia is seeing positive results after shifting glass from curbside collection to drop-off. The effort has also set the stage for a hub-and-spoke system to serve the wider region.
Recent actions by the Chinese government indicate the country will likely ban imports of OCC and almost all other fiber grades in 2021. Such a move would come in the wake of industry-shaking mixed paper and plastic prohibitions already in place.
The overall U.S. recycling rate was 35.2% in 2017, but underneath that number is a more complicated picture of material-specific recovery.
JW Aluminum Company says it will be increasing its annual intake of UBCs and other forms of recycled material by at least 100 million pounds when it finishes an expansion project in the Southeast U.S. next year.
The Chinese government will not implement a planned tariff increase on OCC and other recovered fiber imported from the U.S., nor scrap aluminum, after the two countries came to an agreement in recent trade talks. But existing tariffs will remain.
Prices for curbside natural high-density polyethylene have climbed even higher over the past month. Paper prices remain painfully low.
Two hundred brand owners and retailers now use the How2Recycle labels on their product packaging.