A U.K. businessman has been sent to jail for exporting e-scrap to Africa. Joe Benson, an Essex-based e-scrap processor and CEO of BJ Electronics, was sentenced to serve 16 months in jail following an investigation by the Environment Agency (EA).Between September 2012 and April 2013, EA intercepted four containers headed for several African countries including Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The...

In a sign of the increasingly tight CRT market, regulators in California have moved to increase the payments issued to firms that collect and/or process lower value electronics to help them fully cover recycling costs. Jeff Hunts, branch manager of the e-waste program at California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), issued a Request for Approval last week to...

Municipal leaders from across the country are curious about how the future will unfold for a trash-sorting materials recovery facility in Montgomery, Alabama. In an article in the Montgomery Advertiser this week, that Alabama city's mayor, Todd Strange, says decision-makers from other cities have come to take a look at Montgomery's recently opened $35 million facility, which sorts recyclables from...

A CRT-collecting e-scrap firm in Utah has come under extensive state-level scrutiny for being slow to address operational miscues identified by regulators. The issues allegedly facing Stone Castle Recycling, which include improper storage of CRT glass, large outdoor and indoor stockpiles of various material and "deficiencies" in current plans of operation, were detailed in a pair of letters to the...

The founder of an embroiled East Coast e-scrap company is being sued for allegedly misrepresenting the firm's value. Jonathan Yob, who founded and served as the president of Creative Recycling Systems (CRS) for 18 years, is at the center of a lawsuit claiming Yob overstated the value of CRS when it was sold in 2012 to a group of investors....

Indianapolis may be the next American city to usher in a garbage-sorting MRF, though a number of recycling companies and groups are hoping to push the municipality in a different diversion direction. The Indianapolis Business Journal reported earlier this week New Jersey-based Covanta has submitted a proposal for the construction of a facility that would accept household waste and then...

In a continued effort to modernize and simplify the nation's longest-standing container deposit program, the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative has opened another fully automated and staffed redemption center. The latest "BottleDrop" center is in Eugene, home to the University of Oregon and the second-largest population center in the state. With the new location in place, residents can trade in redeemable...

Despite facing a torrent of criticism, officials in British Columbia say they are on track to transform the Canadian province's recycling system into one led and funded by producers. Multi-Material BC, the stewardship organization managing the overhaul, will begin running the program Monday, May 19. At that point, producers of printed paper and packaging in the region will be asked...

Following the lead of Los Angeles, Chicago has become the second largest city in the country to pass a plastic bag ban ordinance. City council members on Wednesday voted 36-10 in favor of a ban, which is set to go into effect in August 2015. Endorsed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the ban will spare "independent" stores and establishments, instead focusing...

A plastics recycling firm in Central Florida says investments are in place to build two wash lines and sell almost six months-worth of agricultural plastics. Florida Agricultural Plastic Recyclers (FLAG) announced the news Wednesday, noting that more than 30 million pounds of LDPE ag-plastic is ready to leave the company's 65,000-square-foot Avon Park processing facility. An additional 30 to 40...