In late May, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works committee held a hearing on improving reuse and recycling in the United States. | S-F/Shutterstock
Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works committee asked questions about grants, private funding, support for rural communities and diverting food scraps during a May 22 hearing on local efforts to improve reuse and recycling.
Minnesota sent an EPR bill to its governor in a budget bill. | Rawf8/Shutterstock
Minnesota is poised to be the fifth U.S. state to pass extended producer responsibility for packaging after adding the program language into the 2024 Environment and Natural Resources Budget, which is now on the governor’s desk. Continue Reading
Waste Expo 2024 in Las Vegas featured multiple sessions focusing on food waste and other organics diversion. | Randy Andy/Shutterstock
Detailed data, strong community ties and a willingness to try something new are essential ingredients for a successful organics diversion program, speakers from across the continent said earlier this month. Continue Reading
An EverestLabs robot performs quality control on the aluminum can stream at the LRS sorting center in Chicago. | Courtesy of EverestLabs
Boosted by aluminum industry funding, MRF operator LRS has installed an EverestLabs robot at its Chicago sorting facility, aiming to reduce the number of aluminum cans that are lost due to missorting. Continue Reading
Coming from inside the ranks of the state agency, Zoe Heller was appointed director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery. | Rarrarorro/Shutterstock
California’s sizable waste reduction and recycling agency has a new leader in Zoe Heller, who was recently appointed director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery. Industry leaders praised her integrity, thoughtfulness and collaboration skills. Continue Reading
Natural and color HDPE prices rose higher this month, continuing an upward trend that began last fall. Paper grades increased marginally as well. Continue Reading
Paper companies are looking to offset rising OCC costs through measures like price increases for their products. | Kenishirotie/Shutterstock
OCC end users have been paying consistently higher prices for the recovered fiber grade since last fall, and it played heavily into their discussions of first-quarter earnings this year. Continue Reading
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, U.S. exports of recovered paper fell and plastic exports remained steady in the first quarter of 2024. | Joyseulay/Shutterstock
Exports of U.S. recovered paper dwindled to their lowest first-quarter volume since 2002, driven by substantial declines to major buyers in Thailand and India. Plastic shipments remained steady year over year. Continue Reading
Although recycled pulp export activity has slowed considerably, Total Fiber Recovery has started up its mill in Virginia and is producing bales of dried recycled pulp for export and domestic sale. | Photo courtesy Total Fiber Recovery
In May 2018, as the global recycling industry was reeling from the Chinese government’s move to ban or heavily restrict imports of key recovered paper grades, the largest paper company in China made an investment that drew some attention. Continue Reading
Five big North American haulers recently reported their first quarter earnings. | Janossy Gergely/Shutterstock
Publicly traded recycling collectors saw bale prices rise in the first quarter, contributing to higher revenues and a positive outlook for the year ahead.
Continue Reading