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Reducing plastic has been a hot topic for corporate sustainability officers around the world. Our planet is literally drowning in plastic and with China’s recent policy to stop imports of plastic trash, there’s growing public pressure for retailers to drastically cut down on plastic packaging and to support recycling infrastructure. However, Amazon has made little […]
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The 186 nations who are a party to the United Nation’s Basel Convention on solid waste concluded a historic agreement late Friday that will require countries to monitor and control the movement of plastic waste between national borders in order to deal with the world’s plastic crisis. Unfortunately, the United States was not involved in the negotiations or the final agreement because it is one of just two countries that has not ratified the Basel Convention.
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Ever since China stopped accepting the bulk of our recyclable waste last year, the state of recycling in the United States has been in chaos as more cities are canceling their recycling programs. Part of the reason is that the stuff we dump into the blue recycling bin is often contaminated, but a bigger culprit […]
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As we have reported, China has stopped accepting U.S. trash for recycling, which leaves cities in a bind and many have had to cut back or stop recycling altogether. According to The New York Times, hundreds of cities across the country have had to drastically alter their recycling programs or cancel their programs amid increasing turmoil in global scrap markets. Fiona Ma, the Treasurer of the State of California, put it bluntly, telling The Times, “We are in a crisis moment in the recycling movement right now.”
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NPR reported that Oregon’s bottle deposit system is recycling more containers than ever before despite major disruptions in global recycling markets. Last year, Oregon recycled 90 percent of the beverage containers covered by its bottle deposit system. The rate has jumped from 64 percent just two years ago, and the total number of bottles recycled reached […]
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Compostable cups, bags and cutlery were supposed to be the answer to single-use plastic products, but recent news reports say that instead they are causing problems for recycling plants and also ending up in landfills where the conditions are not right for them to decompose. According to The Wall Street Journal and the Daily Caller, in order to decompose, compostables need high heat and moisture — they were actually intended to be sent to specially designed disposal sites, where they will break down properly and can add nutrients to the soil.
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