The North American product stewardship group Call2Recycle collected a program-best 12.6 million pounds of batteries in 2015, a 5 percent increase over previous-year figures. According to a press release from the group, 7.1 million pounds of batteries were collected in the U.S., with California notching its fifth consecutive year of collecting over a million pounds. "Strong retail and municipal presence...

Global carpet tile maker Interface plans to expand carpet collections in the U.S. so it can dramatically boost the amount of nylon it recycles. Since 1995, the LaGrange, Ga.-based company has reclaimed more than 148,000 tons of carpet through its carpet-to-carpet recycling program, called ReEntry. EnvironmentalLeader.com reports the company will expand its collection network by establishing regional partners. Interface will partner with...

Add Atlanta to the list of American cities struggling with the economic realities of curbside glass recycling collection. A recent report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted much of the glass put in curbside bins throughout the Atlanta area ends up in landfills. Municipal leaders in the greater Atlanta area have continued to instruct residents to put their glass bottles and...

Problems with Pennsylvania's e-scrap program continue to grab headlines as local programs restrict or halt collections. E-scrap recycling companies participating in the state's extended producer responsibility program say manufacturers aren't paying them enough to recycle collected materials. The Morning Call reported on the ramifications, which include York County halting collections and the inability of Philadelphia and four neighboring counties to...

Container shipping lines serving the U.S.-to-Asia market are confronting new market dynamics. The strong U.S. dollar and tepid Asian economies have together led to a decline in westbound containerized freight. "The market slowdown has been unprecedented," said Brian Conrad, executive administrator of TSA, an alliance of 15 of the world’s largest shipping lines. As a result, shipping rates have plummeted,...

An international metals recycling company jumps into the PET recycling business, and Scotland mulls a beverage container deposit program. An ambitious effort to clean plastics from the Pacific Ocean so they can be recycled will be tested near a Japanese island this year. The Telegraph features the effort by a 21-year-old Dutch entrepreneur to anchor a large boom array in the...

Nulife Glass says testing is underway on its New York CRT glass recycling furnace and that another operation in Virginia will get up and running in 2016. The U.K.-based company reports its Dunkirk, N.Y. furnace began to heat up Dec. 15 and is currently undergoing tests. “We’re very excited to get that done. It’s taken a long time, a lot...

Sims Recycling Solutions has earned ISO 9001:2015 certification at all sites in the U.S. The processor holds ISO 9001:2008 certification at sites across the globe. Citadel Information Management of Westmont, Ill.; DataLock (Div of 3GS, LLC) of Mount Vernon, Ill.; Filebank Record Center Ltd. of Toronto; MARS, LLC of Olympia, Wash.; NEXCUT Shredding of Elizabeth, N.J.; Northeast Data Destruction LLC...

French company Carbios has developed an enzyme-based recycling technology, which breaks down PET into monomers that can be used to create new plastic. Carbios recently announced it successfully employed its "bio-recycling" approach on PET. The company's patented enzymes are capable of de-polymerizing 100 percent amorphous PET commercial products into the original monomers, terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. It announced in 2014 it had de-polymerized...

A small Midwest town is slated to welcome a plastics-to-fuel facility converting up to 100,000 tons of mixed plastics per year into gasoline and diesel fuels. Renewable Energy Solutions (RES) Polyflow in late December announced Ashley, Ind., population 1,000, as the location of its first commercial-scale facility, which will cost roughly $90 million to construct.  Once complete, the facility will...