At the closing general session of the 2014 ISRI Convention & Exposition, presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to over 1,000 attendees about recycling and how the industry fits into the larger U.S. and global economy, but not without some controversy. Just as Clinton began speaking, a member of the audience threw a strapped shoe and some papers at...

A microbrewery in Georgia is the first company to use a "high-recycled" content aluminum can from Novelis. The aluminum giant announced this week Red Hare Brewing Company, based in Marietta, will be using the Novelis Evercan product to package beers that will be available to consumers starting next month. The Evercan aluminum sheet is made from at least 90 percent...

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will sign a statewide recycling bill that will create an aspirational goal of reaching a 50 percent recycling rate while reworking the way annual data is reported. The original language of the bill, authored by Rep. David Wolkins, a Republican, included a mandate to reach the ambitious recycling goal by 2019. Owing to a lack of...

Entrepreneurs looking to make it big in Phoenix may turn to recycling for their next businesses venture. A city-funded incubator was announced Jan. 13 to help spur the development of the recycling industry within Arizona. The Center for Resource Intelligence will be housed at the Phoenix branch of Arizona State University. It could receive up to $2 million in funding...

After months of debate over whether or not to ban expanded polystyrene food service containers in the Big Apple – and nearly a million dollars spent fighting the proposed prohibition – the New York City Council passed a kind of compromise bill.  There will be a delayed EPS ban, but only after industry is given a year to figure out...

A recent study on food residue in packaging aims to bust the myth that food service packaging is too contaminated to be added to recycling streams. The Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) released preliminary findings from a food residue study carried out in Boston. With the help of DSM Environmental Services, roughly 2,000 pounds of randomly selected curbside recyclables were collected...

The Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER) recently announced that Arrow Value Recovery officially joined the group in its effort to pass the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA). While it may seem odd for a global e-scrap player to support a bill limiting exports of e-scrap, an Arrow VP said in practice such legislation aligns with the firm's business model...

Coca-Cola has released its first bottle with a shrink-sleeve label that was designed to meet guidelines outlined by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR). The holiday-themed Orb bottle is exclusive to Walmart stores and will serve as a test of the new design process and material composition. A spokesperson for Coca-Cola says that if the pilot goes well, the...

Processors of packaging waste in the U.K. are calling for major reforms to the current packaging recovery note (PRN) system, which they contend encourages exports of scrap material. At a recycling seminar hosted by the British Plastics Federation (BPF), several industry members voiced their support for changes to the system first introduced in 1997. While the original intent of the...

The overall recycling rate for PET containers rose incrementally in 2012 while domestic demand for recycled PET (rPET) continued to trump supply. Those are the takeaways from the "Report on Postconsumer Recycling Activity in 2012," released today by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR). Representing modest year-over-year gains, overall PET...