ABA President and CEO Katherine Lugar presented a major recycling funding initiative alongside leaders from beverage companies. | Photo credit: YouTube
Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo today pledged to put their money behind boosting processing technology and increasing curbside collection access. They’ll also introduce a uniform recycling message on their bottles next year.
The Novelis project will add aluminum recycling equipment, incorporate a new baghouse for controlling dust, and increase safety. | Image from Novelis video
Novelis, the world’s largest recycler of aluminum, will invest tens of millions of dollars expanding its recycling capabilities and improving safety at its Georgia plant.
Packaging Corporation of America will add 350,000 tons per year of OCC pulping capacity at its Wallula, Wash. mill. | Google Earth
Packaging Corporation of America will begin consuming OCC at a mill in the Pacific Northwest, citing customer demand, feedstock availability and cost savings.
British Columbia residents recently gained access to the Return-It Express program, through which they can bag their containers and drop them off at one of 60 depots. | Courtesy of Encorp Pacific
The majority of beverage containers in British Columbia had their deposit values increase from 5 cents to 10 cents at the start of this month, creating more consistency in the provincial redemption program.
OCC has traded for consistently lower prices each month this year. | create jobs 51/Shutterstock
Executives from paper manufacturers that consume major tonnages of OCC and mixed paper recently offered their thoughts on where the recycled-material market is headed.
Jenna Jambeck was the keynote at this year’s Resource Recycling Conference and Trade Show, held in late summer. | Resource Recycling Conference/Brian Adams Photography
The statistic has taken on almost household familiarity: 91% of plastic ever created has not been recycled, and a massive amount has become litter. Jenna Jambeck, a researcher who helped formulate that number, recently spoke about solutions to the pollution problem.
Among the bills Governor Newsom signed is one which prohibits hotels from providing plastic single-use shampoo, conditioner and lotion bottles. | Susanne Pommer/Shutterstock
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation forcing beverage companies to use increasingly higher percentages of recycled plastic in coming years, but he signed other bills of consequence.
UBQ currently operates in Israel but is eyeing Virginia as a possible location for a large-scale facility. | Courtesy of UBQ Materials
A nascent company that makes a composite material from the non-recycled waste stream is looking to site a processing plant in the U.S.
Prices for recovered papers and HDPE have taken a beating over the past month, although aluminum and PET values have been more stable.
Trade data shows the U.S. has exported 4.2 million short tons of recovered fiber to China from January through August this year. | apiguide/Shutterstock
China continues to import a substantial amount of OCC from the U.S. and elsewhere. But an all-out ban and other regulatory changes loom on the horizon.