Eric Hartz (center) spoke on a panel with Kate Bailey (right) at the 2022 Resource Recycling Conference. The session was moderated by Sarah Edwards (left). | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Recent years have seen a steady stream of announcements from chemical recycling operators touting technological breakthroughs. But two industry insiders recently issued a stern reminder to the market: Don’t forget about economics.
Thermoforms such as those shown here often contain post-consumer material from bottles, but a California bill would require post-consumer thermoforms to be used in production of new thermoforms. | Anakumka/Shutterstock
Current debate over a California bill requiring PET thermoforms to contain recycled PET derived from thermoforms boils down to one question: What will MRFs do?
U.S. companies exported 8.7 million short tons of recovered paper and OCC during the first half of 2022. | Richard H Grant/Shutterstock
U.S. exports of fiber bales came down slightly during the first half of this year, trade data shows. At the same time, overseas shipments of scrap plastics took a tumble.
A collaboration will bring recycling collection for certain health and beauty products to 25 Walmart stores in four U.S. states. | Chanandra Ramsurrun/Shutterstock
In collaboration with Procter & Gamble and TerraCycle, Walmart is allowing customers in four states to recycle beauty product packaging in certain stores.
The leader of the Association of Plastic Recyclers responds to an op-ed by The Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics. | Courtesy of Herbold Meckesheim
For the second year in a row, Recycle BC observed “significant growth” in collected metric tons, with a 17% increase over the past two years. | Lightspring/Shutterstock
British Columbia’s paper and plastic packaging collection rates have rebounded after pandemic-related challenges, reaching a record-high recovery rate of just over 94%.
A judge determined the key issue was the availability of recycling programs, not whether bottles are made into new items. | Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
If a bottled water label and cap are effectively unrecyclable, and if statistics show a majority of PET bottles are ultimately wasted, can the containers still be labeled as “100% recyclable”? A federal judge recently said yes.
Amazon recently noted it has on-site plastic film recycling systems at facilities across North America and Europe. | Bret Habura/Shutterstock
Amazon has eliminated more than 1.5 million tons of packaging since 2015 and created programs to increase recycling and diversion, according to its latest sustainability report.
Research from the Association of Plastic Recyclers shows a 28% recycling rate for PET and HDPE bottles in 2020. | Frank Fiedler/Shutterstock
The Association of Plastic Recyclers released a report noting 21% of HDPE, PET and PP plastic packaging is recycled in the U.S.
Proposed regulations in Canada would limit the use of the chasing-arrows symbol among other provisions. | Alexander Sviridov/Shutterstock
The Canadian government will develop rules for recyclability and compostability labeling and establish a federal plastics registry for producers of plastic products.