An executive from the world’s largest retailer says the company is aiming to give suppliers concrete details in its mission for more sustainable packaging – and recycling is playing a major role in that process.
An executive from the world’s largest retailer says the company is aiming to give suppliers concrete details in its mission for more sustainable packaging – and recycling is playing a major role in that process.
Editor’s note: To add to the waste and recycling industry’s dialogue about food-scrap management, we are presenting a lengthy perspective on the issue that was submitted to our publication by the former head of materials recovery programs for New York City. All opinions are those of the author.
An upgrade at a Midwest MRF has dramatically boosted its throughput while allowing it to better separate materials.
A Denver-based recycling and waste collection company is now sending broken glass from its materials recovery facility to a specialized glass processing facility instead of disposal.
The nation’s largest waste and recycling company has replaced longtime leader David Steiner, but the incoming top executive said the company remains committed to materials recovery.
A report from the National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA) studies organics in the waste stream.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, talks with staff at We Compost It, which creates compost from residential and institutional food scraps.
A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives aims to create a federal grant program providing up to $100 million a year to build large-scale composting and anaerobic digestion facilities.
California has under-subsidized its container redemption centers to the tune of $43 million in recent years, leading a significant number of them to close, according to the Container Recycling Institute.
While recycling may have been on the defensive in recent months, a survey indicates that the vast majority of Americans are still motivated to divert materials.
One of the country’s largest corrugated packaging companies announced plans to open a recycled paperboard mill next to its existing box manufacturing operation in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Georgia-based Pratt Industries will lay out $260 million on the new mill and claims the operation will bring nearly 140 jobs to northwest Indiana. Construction is expected to be completed by July 2015, and the facility will be able to produce 360,000 tons of recycled paper annually.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered the company up to $1.2 million in conditional tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. A number of other energy and infrastructure incentives were also offered to the company. “With the pro-growth business environment we’ve worked hard to create, companies can expand here with confidence,” said Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
The paper mill is Pratt’s fourth, joining others in Georgia, Louisiana and New York. Pratt produces all of its paper and packaging from 100 percent recycled products, and its New York mill, located on Staten Island, recently announced it had recycled 5 million tons of paper since opening in 1997. The company says it currently processes roughly 3,000 tons of recovered paper across all its sites each day.
Pratt executives said they considered 100 locations for their latest mill before narrowing the search down to a pair of locations in Indiana and one in Ohio.
The opening of a large-scale recycled paper mill is an encouraging development for the recycled fiber industry, which has faced demand struggles in recent years as consumers have continued to shift toward electronic media.