Author: Faye Park

Every time you run to the grocery store, it can feel like you’re coming home with more and more plastic.  That pasta in a plastic bag that you could swear used to come in a cardboard box. The head of lettuce shrinkwrapped in plastic film. The berries in a plastic clamshell instead of a quart-sized cardboard basket. Our reliance on plastic packaging is a growing problem — and it’s fueling our country’s plastic waste crisis.

Author: Nicky Davies

"We are drilling for oil to produce plastic that we burn or bury a few months later. It is an economic and ecological absurdity." These were the words of French President Emmanuel Macron to the negotiators from 175 countries who convened for the Global Plastic Treaty discussions this month. Left unchecked, plastic production is forecast to triple by 2060. More than 700 groups, including civil society, Indigenous peoples, workers and trade unions, children and youth, and women's organizations, pushed the world's governments to come together to stop this madness and address the plastic crisis. This grassroots effort laid the foundation for what will become the Global Plastics Treaty.

Author: PlastEurope

German company Werner & Mertz (W&M, Mainz; www.werner-mertz.com), a manufacturer of laundry detergents and cleaning products, is regarded as a pioneer in circular economy in the country. Since 2012, the PET bottles used by the company have been made of 100% post-consumer recyclate. “As far as plastics are concerned, Germany is steering politically against a circular economy,” said managing partner Reinhard Schneider in a recent interview with German newspaper, Handelsblatt. “Unlike for example heating oil or petrol, virgin plastic is exempt from mineral oil tax. That is a concealed subsidy,” added Schneider.

Author: Paula Leardini

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Demand for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) is expected to remain moderate to soft in 2023 despite long-term recycled content goals, resulting in potential downward price pressure in the United States. To understand the US R-PET market, one must look at the basics of each major price driver including supply, demand production costs and quality.

Author: Faye Park

Every time you run to the grocery store, it can feel like you’re coming home with more and more plastic.  That pasta in a plastic bag that you could swear used to come in a cardboard box. The head of lettuce shrinkwrapped in plastic film. The berries in a plastic clamshell instead of a quart-sized cardboard basket. Our reliance on plastic packaging is a growing problem — and it’s fueling our country’s plastic waste crisis.

Author: Cat Schofield

By 2050, converting plastic waste into energy will result in more carbon dioxide emissions than burning fossil fuels, a study by researchers in South Korea has projected. Their findings show plastic waste-to-energy conversion should be a far larger concern with regards to global heating than it currently is.

Author: Erin X. Wong

Eighteen years ago, discarded plastic was common on the streets of Bengaluru, India. Strong winds carried loose plastic bottles and packaging, which piled up in drains after the rain. Indumathi, who uses only her given name, remembers the scene well, because back then, she tried to collect as much plastic as she could, searching behind bushes, climbing into drains, or waking up at 4 a.m. to check trash heaps before they were burned. She sold what she could to small-scale recyclers, braving an unpredictable income before eventually starting to work at a scrap shop full time.

Author: Mark Victory, ICIS

Demand for European mechanically recycled polymers is the lowest it’s been for several years. Costs through the chain remain high and producer margins for many grades narrow. Players through the chain have reduced operating rates, summer convertor outages are expected to be protracted and there remains persistent expectation of consolidation in 2023 across all major recycled polymers.

Author: Melissa Godin

It’s a hot afternoon in Iztapalapa, Mexico City’s most populous borough. Under the baking sun, Enriqueta Loreto is separating recyclables from waste. Every day, she goes door to door, collecting people’s waste in the hope of finding objects she can resell. “Nobody protects us,” said Loreto, who carries out her work as a waste picker informally, without a contract or social protection. “The government does not recognise us, nor the waste workers’ union. We have no protection.”

Author: Jane Nixon

The big brother of the ban on hard-to-recycle plastics is about to progress as the second tranche of the phase-out approaches. It means New Zealand will become the first country in the world to ban plastic produce bags as the haste to reduce waste moves forward. It started with phasing out plastic microbeads in 2018. The following year single-use shopping bags were banned. Last October, a raft of throw-away plastic items like PVC food containers and polystyrene takeaway food and drink packaging were discontinued in the first tranche of the phase-out.

Author: James Bruggers

ASHLEY, Ind.—Two years ago on a Friday evening in May, Kory Kistler was getting ready to leave work at a recycling plant marketed by its owners as being on the front line in a global war against plastic waste. Then all hell broke loose. Flammable, 700-degree vapors began spewing from a valve on a pump at the plant. “All of a sudden my operators on the ground started screaming over the radio,” recalled Kistler, a former Marine and a resident of Fort Wayne, 35 miles to the south. “It was hard to understand anything they were saying. So I was like, ‘I’ll go down, check it out and see what’s going on.’ And as soon as I walk outside, I see clouds of vapor in the sky.”

Author: Jared Paben

Reynolds Consumer Products faces yet another lawsuit over its recyclables collection bags, this time from Minnesota’s top legal officer. Provided by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on June 6 filed a lawsuit against Reynolds and Walmart, accusing them of deceiving consumers with their marketing of Hefty brand recycling bags. Filed in Ramsey County district court, the complaint argues the bags themselves aren’t recyclable in the state and, when placed at the curb, render the whole bag full of materials unrecyclable.

Author: Megan Smalley

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against Lake Forest, Illinois-based Reynolds Consumer Products Inc., the parent company of the Hefty bag trademark, and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart for defrauding and deceiving Minnesota customers through the marketing of 30-gallon “recycling” bags. The complaint alleges that Reynolds and Walmart actively deceived consumers and profited from Minnesotans at the expense of the recycling industry.

Author: Stephen Lang

Germany is to take back around 35,000 tons of waste illegally dumped in Poland. Otherwise, Poland's Ministry of the Environment wants to file a complaint with the EU Commission. Poland's Deputy Environment Minister Jacek Ozdoba said in mid-May: "We expect Germany to take immediate measures to take back waste illegally shipped to Poland."

Author: Tatum McConnell

Negotiators at last week’s global plastics treaty talks in Paris agreed to create an initial treaty draft, but full inclusion of the countries and people most impacted by plastic pollution remains uncertain. The burdens of plastic pollution land heavily on low- and middle-income countries. High-income countries generated 87% of exported plastic waste between 1998 and 2016. Much of that exported plastic goes to developing countries including Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. In these countries with limited waste management infrastructure, plastic clogs waterways, putting 218 million people at risk of devastating floods; it pollutes air with toxic fumes when burned, with waste burning causing an estimated 740,000 deaths per year; and it leaches toxic chemicals into the environment.