Governments and industries are grappling with the dual challenge of managing global waste responsibly while keeping costs manageable as landfill space diminishes and disposal expenses increase. The push for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, already established in Europe and gaining traction in the U.S., underscores a shift towards holding manufacturers accountable for managing their products’ end-of-life disposal, particularly single-use packaging, amidst inadequate recycling infrastructure.
Category: Waste 360
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Proponents say mass balance negates the need to duplicate billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure to keep recycled and virgin materials separate throughout the value chain, thus enabling scale up. Opponents say making recycled claims on what can’t be physically traced is misleading.
Research shows confusion over date labels accounts for 8 percent of consumer food waste in the U.S., costing around $30 billion a year. In this Q&A Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED, updates us on the status of the Food Date Labeling Act, introduced to the legislature for the third time.
Recycled content is leading the pack today, though material makers and designers in quest of a piece of the market are chasing all types of innovations. They are working on packaging made from agricultural waste and captured carbon emissions, among other unconventional sources.
How do the varied, fast-evolving biobased polymers infiltrating the market degrade in different real-world settings? And what do stakeholders watching the biopolymers space care most about? These are among a mountain of questions answered in a recent 5 Gyres report.
The ability to move forward on what is arguably the country’s largest food scrap collection and processing system has hinged on government public-private sector partnerships. CalRecycle Director Rachel Machi Wagoner wrote Waste360 detailing progress to date; funding that’s gone into this hardball food waste fight; and support to jurisdictions in implementing programs and overcoming compliance barriers.
The report aims to decipher customer attitudes, preferences and behaviors concerning reusable and refillable packaging solutions, providing valuable insights for companies, cities and other stakeholders navigating the evolving landscape of reuse and circularity.