Red Rock Ag Products LLC, a Vale-based company, received $25,000 for a project to recycle drip tape in mass quantities. The company intends to establish and operate a recycling plant in the Treasure Valley; an initial location was scouted at an empty warehouse in southwest Ontario.

The warehouse will employ up to 12 people. Red Rock estimates the project will cost $705,900.

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Metro, in partnership with Agilyx, will now collect expanded polystyrene foam, also known as Sytrofoam, products at the facility in Oregon City. Instead of going into the landfill, these items will be recycled into new products.

Agilyx is an advanced recycling company that specializes in converting plastics. Before this pilot program, their facility in Tigard was one of the few places in greater Portland that could reuse polystyrene waste.  

Metro, in partnership with Agilyx, will now collect expanded polystyrene foam, also known as Sytrofoam, products at the facility in Oregon City. Instead of going into the landfill, these items will be recycled into new products.

Agilyx is an advanced recycling company that specializes in converting plastics. Before this pilot program, their facility in Tigard was one of the few places in greater Portland that could reuse polystyrene waste.  

The US EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery (ORCR) is happy to announce that the SMM Prioritization Tools are now available for use. They can be found on the EPA’s website at https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-materials-management-prioritization-tools.

Recycled PET was already set to have a tough 2020 as more virgin resin came on the market at incredibly cheap prices, threatening the viability of recycled materials. And then came the pandemic.

Now, slowed collection and processing of coveted food-grade plastics could cut back on the amount of the resin in the recycling system. And when life becomes more normal again, the market could flood with pent-up recycled PET. 

SWANA joined over 170 other organizations urging Congress to include direct relief to cities, towns, and villages in future federal assistance packages in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented coronavirus public health crisis has strained municipal budgets across the United States. This will, in turn, test their ability to provide essential services to communities and support local economic activity in these critical times.

The Paper Bottle Company (Paboco) wants to help manufacturers and distributors reduce their single-use plastic waste by creating bottles made from degradable plant sugars rather than fossil fuels. BillerudKorsnäs, a paper packaging developer, first started this initiative in 2013, and has been joined by research companies and industry leaders like Avantium and ALPLA. The project proudly announced in October 2019 that Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, and Absolut had joined their efforts.

After the coronavirus pandemic has passed, the world will need solutions to repair our economy in a way that protects both the planet and its people. The circular economy is a solution for our future health and wellness and recycling has a vital role to play.

A circular economy is not possible without recycling, yet it can’t happen through recycling alone. As companies ramp up their circular economy goals, they’re often based on the concept that recycling will be the workhorse and catch-net of a bigger system. The truth is, that system is not yet a reality.

Two advocacy groups and a consulting firm they hired have prepared a 20-page report saying a “precipitous decline” in funding for California’s bottle bill has led to redemption rates falling from a peak of 85 percent to 66 percent in recent years. The bottle bill legislation has an 80 percent target rate.