The Indonesian government on May 27 announced the official contamination policy for imports of scrap paper, plastic and other materials. | dani daniar/Shutterstock
Paper and plastic shipments to Indonesia will be allowed a maximum of 2% contamination, the country recently announced. The move follows several changes to the country’s import policies last year.
Boise will send materials to a Utah cement manufacturer on a temporary basis until September. | Charles Knowles/Shutterstock
Boise, Idaho will send hard-to-recycle plastics to be used as fuel for a cement manufacturing operation in Utah, after being without a solid downstream market for more than a year.
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste announced earlier this month it would be supporting a female-led plastics recycling plant in Ghana. | Courtesy of ASASE Foundation.
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste is currently working to implement more than a dozen initiatives worldwide. The group’s leader recently explained key details, as well as how COVID-19 has impacted progress.
TerraCycle US sold $5.81 million worth of recycled plastic and other materials in 2019, well over double its net sales from the prior year. | Courtesy of TerraCycle.
A car seat recycling deal with a major retailer helped boost TerraCycle’s recovered commodity sales by over $3.5 million last year, according to a financial report.
Recycled material shipments out of the U.S. have been on the decline for multiple years due to overseas regulatory changes. | MAGNIFIER/Shutterstock
U.S. exports of recycled paper and plastic were down during the first quarter of 2020 compared with previous years, according to new export data.
Officials estimate that 20 projects receiving grants will collectively divert nearly 44,000 tons of material from landfills each year. | ImagineStock/Shutterstock
North Carolina recently awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to help divert mixed recyclables, organics, paper, plastic and other materials from landfills.
The carpet recycling industry is already facing pressures from low plastics prices, a shift in polymers used in carpet and collection challenges from the coronavirus. | ND700/Shutterstock
Carpet manufacturers are halting their nationwide voluntary subsidy program for carpet recycling, which could push some struggling processors out of business.
An industry analyst recently noted that low virgin resin pricing means challenges for ensuring end users choose to use recycled plastic. | batuhan taskinkaya/Shutterstock
The coronavirus pandemic has piled on top of existing plastics recycling market strife to cause pricing fluctuations and create uncertainty about how end users will meet their sustainability commitments.
Circulate Capital announced $6 million in funding to recycling companies to prevent marine debris. | Igor Batenev/Shutterstock
Circulate Capital invested $6 million in plastics recycling companies in India and Indonesia, the brand-backed firm’s first outlay designed to prevent marine plastics.
Eight out of the 10 states with container redemption systems have enacted temporary measures limiting deposit returns in some way. | Karolis Kavolelis/Shutterstock
Stay-at-home orders are hitting container deposit systems hard, leading to significant declines in the volumes of high-quality recyclables moving to material processors.