The annual Resource Recycling Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, drew more than 300 registered attendees to sessions including “Connecting Innovation and Grassroots Efforts to Curtail Contamination.” | Dan Holtmeyer/Resource Recycling, Inc.
The 2024 Resource Recycling Conference kicked off Wednesday, bringing hundreds of recycling program managers, advocates and other experts to share successes and lessons from across the country.
The latest draft, called a “non-paper,” was released by Luis Vayas Valdivieso, chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, convened by the United Nations. | Bascar/Shutterstock
A new draft of the U.N.’s global treaty on plastics has sparked disappointment from environmental groups after leaving some of the most contentious issues unaddressed. Continue Reading
Emmanuel Nyaletey, founder and CEO of BridgeSolar, speaks during a panel on navigating Basel Convention changes in electronics recycling at the 2024 E-Scrap Conference. | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Chatter about legislative effects on the industry permeated much of the 2024 E-Scrap Conference, especially uncertainty around upcoming changes to the Basel Convention, and several sessions dug deep into new laws and coming policy trends in the e-scrap industry.
Several recent California laws are set to reshape the state’s deposit return system. | kornfotocom/Shutterstock
California’s beverage redemption system is undergoing massive change based on a handful of newly enacted laws, and a recent Container Recycling Institute webinar laid out just what alterations are coming.
California’s extended producer responsibility for packaging law requires EPS food service ware and packaging to demonstrate a recycling rate of no less than 25% by Jan. 1. | Minh Mi Goi/Shutterstock
Expanded polystyrene food service ware producers have only a few months left to prove that the material has a recycling rate of at least 25% in California or face the prohibition of selling into the state.
Many states have explicitly included e-commerce and remote distribution in extended producer responsibility laws, seeking to capture a significant portion of packaging material that moves in and out of states. | GroundPhoto/Shutterstock
As states work through rulemaking for packaging extended producer responsibility laws, they’re dealing with a very modern twist: how to handle e-commerce.
California sent a handful of bills to the governor’s desk, including bills on food waste, plastic film, and the deposit return system. | Jonathan-Lenz/Shutterstock
Several states have late summer ends to their legislative sessions, including New Hampshire, Massachusetts and California, and in the final days several recycling related bills passed.
Michigan is eyeing EPR for packaging, with lawmakers recently introducing a bill that would set specific targets for recycling and reduction. | Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock
Michigan lawmakers have introduced an extended producer responsibility bill for packaging, following the successful passage of a packaging EPR bill in Minnesota. Continue Reading
The initial list was published in December 2023 and had 98 categories, while the updated list has 94 as some materials were double-listed. | Joseph_Sohm/Shutterstock
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery released an updated version of the list of materials covered under its extended producer responsibility program for packaging, making nearly 30 tweaks to the list.
A draft bill in California called the Truth in Labeling Act of 2024 would set federal parameters around recycling labels on consumer packaging. | 9dream Studio/Shutterstock
Due to its size and tendency to be on the leading edge of environmental law, California has long been seen as the bellwether, setting policy that other states will later follow – or that producers and manufacturers take as de facto law nationwide when it comes to standards. Continue Reading