Plastics Recycling

Five plastics recycling projects will take in a total of $11.7 million in California state grants. The awarded companies are targeting scrap plastic from a variety of sources.

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) recently approved its 2018-19 Recycled Fiber, Plastic and Glass Grant Program recipients. All five awardees are targeting some amount of plastics with the funds.

Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA), Stamford, Connecticut, has committed to using 25 percent recycled plastic across its U.S. domestic portfolio by 2021 and 50 percent by 2025. The company also has committed to making 100 percent of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. But before NWNA can reach these goals, representatives from the company say increasing recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) supply will be necessary. NWNA is doing its part to help.

Gomi speakers produced by hand in Brighton, in the U.K., are made out of unrecyclable plastic that gets rejected by most recycling facilities.

Each speaker is made of 100 plastic bags that are melted and squished together to create a high-tech, artisan product, instead of ending up in oceans or landfills.

According to a Washington Post report, Amazon’s new, non-recyclable plastic mailers are “gumming up” some U.S. recycling facilities, with consumers throwing them in the recycling bin along with other plastics.

READ MORE AT LIFEHACKER.

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.

Companies from throughout the plastics value chain have committed more than $1 billion to reduce plastic waste by improving waste management systems and cleaning up existing pollution.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste will focus its significant resources on developing waste collection infrastructure, innovating in recycling and product design, educating consumers about waste, and cleaning up plastic in the environment.

The good news is, our collective efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost have made San Francisco the most successful big city in America at reducing what goes to landfill.

How scrap from California ended up in a junkyard 8,500 miles away, broken down manually by workers earning $10 a day, is the story of the reshaping of the global garbage and recycling system. For three decades the United States and other industrialized nations have shipped most of their plastic waste overseas — primarily to China, where cheap labor and voracious factories dismantled the scrap and turned it into new plastic goods.

From Resource Recycliing, Colin Staub

From Press Release:

AmSty and Agilyx have signed a Letter of Intent to form a joint venture that will assume operations of Agilyx’s first-in-kind polystyrene recycling facility in Tigard, Oregon. The process converts used polystyrene products back into their original liquid form, styrene monomer. Fresh polystyrene products can then be made without degrading quality or value. This form of circular recycling is known as the PolyUsable™ process.