Glass is increasingly being rejected from curbside single-stream recycling programs, prompting consumers to question whether recycling is truly worth their time. However, more and more businesses – such as bars – are engaging in multiple-stream recycling, sorting bottles from cans at the point of consumption. With the challenges of single-stream recycling and the growing rejection of mixed paper and other recyclables by China and other historical export destinations, will glass recovery continue to expand?
February 11, 2020Trade of paper and paperboard products has been roiled by recent environmental initiatives in China. In January 2018, the Chinese government began enforcing its National Sword policy, which banned imports of recycled paper with contamination (presence of foreign objects) rates over 0.5%. Furthermore, as part of the US-China trade war, China has levied tariffs on recovered paper imports. How has this impacted the US paper recycling industry?
October 9, 2019Municipal solid waste (MSW) presents two major challenges for municipalities: collection and management. Over the past few decades, many cities have addressed collection by outsourcing it to firms...
April 3, 2017Houston, Texas removed glass from its curbside recycling program back in March of 2016 as a result of increasing processing costs and budget constraints. Similar developments in other cities paint a glum picture for the future of the recovered glass industry. Or do they?
February 22, 2017The volume of paper packaging recovered from the US municipal solid waste (MSW) stream is forecast to grow 0.5% annually through 2021. Corrugated boxes constitute 93% of recovered paper packaging due to their widespread use in shipping goods and a well-established infrastructure for recycling them.
February 8, 2017