Historically, companies have used post-consumer resin (PCR) because it was a lower cost feedstock than virgin. In recent years, however, pricing for virgin plastic (mostly “wide spec” resin) has fallen below that of PCR (mostly high quality PCR that is suitable for food contact).
During the first six months of 2019, India brought in 156 million pounds of U.S. scrap plastics. | Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
Recovered plastic has largely stopped flowing from the U.S. into India, which until recently has been among the top importers of the material.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner released a statement noting that 23 drivers and four supervisors will face disciplinary action. | Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Staff members in the city of Houston’s solid waste department are facing punishment after an internal audit found 1,300 tons of recyclables were landfilled.
A 700,000-tons-per-year recycled pulp and paper operation is coming soon to Kentucky. | olephoto/Shutterstock
The past week brought several significant recycled paper capacity announcements, indicating future domestic outlets for mixed paper and OCC.
Multiple recovered fiber grades continued to decline in price over the past month. The same downward trend was seen for PET and HDPE.
In 2017, the Oregon program doubled its deposit value from 5 cents per container to 10 cents. | Courtesy of OBRC.
Oregon’s container deposit system achieved an 81% redemption rate last year, significantly higher than the previous full-year figure. The increase comes after the deposit value doubled.
Ongoing economic uncertainty has contributed to the freight market shift. | Vitpho/Shutterstock
Multiple factors have led to lower demand for trucking, bringing shipping cost relief to many in the recycling industry.
London, Ontario has a goal of 60% waste diversion by the end of 2022. | Wei Seah/Shutterstock
London, Ontario approved a grant for a Hefty EnergyBag program, making it the first Canadian city to embrace the program for collecting hard-to-recycle plastics.
The longest-running container deposit program in the country expects to hit its highest redemption rate in years, shortly after the program doubled its deposit to 10 cents.
