A pair of much-watched California bills looked to require a 75% reduction of waste from single-use packaging.| Eziutka /Shutterstock
Sweeping legislation in California that would have set aggressive recycling mandates on a range of items failed to advance last week.
Assembly Bill 827 requires many commercial establishments to offer recycling service to their customers. | Brandon Bourdages/Shutterstock
Businesses that are required to receive recycling and composting service in California will need to offer those collection services to customers, under a bill approved by the state legislature.
Batteries made their way to Strategic Materials’ facility as contamination in the curbside recycling stream. | ANGHI/Shutterstock
A glass recycling facility will pay $1.2 million to settle allegations of improper disposal of batteries, which shouldn’t have arrived at its facility in the first place.
On Monday, RePlanet shut down completely and terminated its entire workforce throughout California. | Graham Corney/Shutterstock
RePlanet, once the largest operator of facilities redeeming containers covered by the California Redemption Value (CRV) program, has shuttered. The move will significantly reduce consumer recycling access.
Improperly disposed lithium-ion batteries can be a fire risk at MRFs. | Janaka Dharmasena/Shutterstock
Legislation making lithium-ion battery producers responsible for collecting and recycling the products they sell is advancing in California.
A legal dispute in California centers on the state’s change in how it collects disposal and diversion rate data. | Esin Deniz/Shutterstock
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries has won a court order temporarily shielding its scrap metal recycling members from having to relay their tonnage data to California regulators.
Five plastics recycling projects will take in a total of $11.7 million in California state grants. The awarded companies are targeting scrap plastic from a variety of sources.
Legislation requiring 100 percent post-consumer plastic in beverage containers is gaining traction in California. Meanwhile, recently released data shows recycled plastic usage remains relatively low in the state’s bottling industry.
This story has been corrected.
Some recycling stakeholders have argued for more source separation to bolster material quality. Now, a lawmaker in the country’s largest state is joining the call.
San Francisco has seen significantly more diversion from its curbside program since changing the standard sizes of recycling and garbage receptacles issued to residents.