Last year, China cracked down on recycling imports, forcing cities to get cleaner and more creative with their trash. So where does the market stand? Is recycling on the rocks, or poised to go bigger? How have cities addressed the constriction of the China market, and what have they done to improve the quality and frequency of their recycling programs?

Envision Plastics has had success integrating marine plastics into the supply chain. But if more brand owners don’t step up to purchase the material, the whole effort may have to scale back, an executive at the reclaimer said.

Reidsville, N.C.-headquartered Envision Plastics has processed millions of pounds of plastic at risk of entering the Caribbean Sea, calling the recycled resin OceanBound Plastic.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Washington, has announced some items that top its 2019 advocacy priority list.

Rob Watson, who founded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard, began developing a new standard that aims to push the solid waste industry toward sustainability.

The Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Protocol (SWEEP) is a market transformation standard that will identify and reward public and private sector leaders in sustainable materials management, similar to what LEED did for buildings.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, Washington, D.C, recently shared the results of its date labeling initiative that narrowed the array of product labels to two options: “best if used by” and “use by.” Since launching in 2017, 87 percent of products now carry the streamlined labels, according to the latest data from consumer packaged goods companies that was released in GMA’s new report, “Best If Clearly Labeled.”

There has been much interest among paper industry stakeholders about how China’s recovered paper import policy might affect the recovered fiber supply chain.

What began as an anti-littering measure has become an overwhelmingly popular recycling policy. But after more than 40 years of regularly returning more than 90 percent of bottles and cans, Michigan remains one of of the worst states for recycling in the nation. Michigan only recycles 15 percent of all possible materials, compared with a national average of 35 percent.

​New Fact Sheet:  Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) on Tribal Lands

This week, EPA released a fact sheet called Sustainable Materials Management on Tribal Lands: A Life-Cycle Approach to Managing Materials. This fact sheet is the first of its kind and it will introduce tribal governments, communities and individuals to the concept of Sustainable Materials Management, showcase tribal projects that have applied SMM principles and practices successfully and encourage tribes to consider this approach to their materials management work.