How to improve recycling rates is a topic that I have thought about over the years. There is much debate within the recycling community on how to do this. After all we have been recycling here in the U.S. for over 30 years and yet we recycle less than 8% of all plastics. If we [...]
ENSO Plastics announces solutions to make plastics more responsible, giving brands more environmental possibilities for plastic packaging. Mesa, AZ — (SBWIRE) — 05/07/2013 — In the ongoing pursuit to address the growing global plastic pollution issue, environmental plastic solution provider ENSO Plastics announces two new technologies ENSO RENEW™ and ENSO RESTORE™ that have change the [...]
Consider biodegradeable plastic packaging. It’s been touted as a good thing: If the material cannot be or is not recycled or re-used then it has the added benefit of degrading naturally once composted or landfilled. It seems product manufacturers, in an effort to be more sustainable, have focused on making plastic containers and packaging as [...]
The “Green” plastics industry can be very puzzling. When I first came to this industry, I felt great that I could be involved in something that’s good for the world. Save the world! But then, one starts to question if the world even wants to be saved – bizarre. This industry includes bioplastics, composting, recyclers, [...]
Europe continues to be largest consuming region for biodegradable polymers, with more than half of global total “The biodegradable polymers market is still young and very small, but the numbers are off the charts in terms of expected demand growth and potential for these materials in the coming years,” According to a new IHS Chemical [...]
New York City residents can now place all rigid plastics in their recycling bins. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the expansion of the city’s recycling program at a news conference Wednesday. “Starting today, if it’s a rigid plastic – any rigid plastic – recycle it,” said Bloomberg. “There’s no more worrying about the confusing numbers on [...]
Recycling is all about the environment, conserving our resources and greening our planet. Isn’t it? With the recent onslaught of laws angled at restricting the types of materials allowed to be recycled, one could start to wonder. After all, technically all these materials can be recycled. Are they implying that we should not encourage [...]
I’ve heard stories over the years about “islands”, out in the middle of the oceans, which are created completely from discarded plastic. It’s hard to believe that such a place would exist. I recently watched the documentary, “Garbage Island”, by Vice. This documentary proved there is no such island, at least not in the terms [...]
When is the last time you asked yourself or someone else if something was recyclable? It a common question and one that gets many different answers depending on what packaging or material you are asking the question about. Most recycling programs will have information readily available to the public on what they will accept in [...]
There has been a bit of lingering confusion by some regarding the recent updates to the FTC Green Guidelines about marketing products with the terms “biodegradable” and/or “compostable”. We hope to clear up any remaining confusion that might be out there in this blog. We feel that the recently updated FTC Green Guidelines have really [...]