Electro-Extraction and the Future of E-Waste with Megan O'Connor, CEO and Co-founder of Nth Cycle - Battery + Storage Podcast
Reuse to the Rescue: Talking Water Reuse with Pat Sinicropi, Executive Director, WateReuse Association - Reflections on Water Podcast
Recently, the Parliament and the Council, under the leadership of the Belgian Council Presidency, have been able to reach a provisional agreement on a final text for a new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation within a...more
Countries are preparing for a new round of negotiations on an ambitious legally binding international treaty to address plastics pollution across the entire life cycle of plastics per the UNEA 5.2 mandate in resolution 5/14....more
Tomorrow, February 1, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) will host a hybrid question and answer session to discuss the draft rulemaking on their extended producer responsibility (EPR)...more
At the end of 2023, the EU Parliament and the EU Council each adopted their positions on the EU Commission's proposal for a new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. The Commission's proposal had already given rise to a...more
In The Graduate, Mr. McGuire pulls aside Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, and utters “one word” of career advice – “plastics.” Benjamin’s diffident reaction reflects his wealthy suburban character’s utter lack of...more
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 54 on June 30, 2022, creating an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program and imposing some related prohibitions for certain single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware...more
It is probably fair to say that SB 54 – California’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) law imposing source reduction and recycling requirements on single use packaging and plastic food service ware – is not only the...more
North Little Rock, Arkansas, will be the site of a new glass recycling plant beginning in early 2024. The companies involved in this endeavor are EPIC Glass Recycling (“EPIC”) and ACE Glass and Plastics Recycling...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) recently released a “Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution.” Depending on its ultimate composition, the final strategy could materially affect the...more
Earlier this month, a team of researchers out of the UK, Canada, and New Zealand published a first-of-its-kind study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Hazardous Material Advances, examining the microplastics pollution potential...more
On May 2, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution (Draft Strategy) for public comment. 88 Fed. Reg. 27502. EPA states in its April...more
On the eve of Earth Day, the Biden Administration announced a new “White House Interagency Policy Committee (“IPC”) on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy.” The IPC is tasked with coordinating federal efforts on plastic...more
On March 29, 2023, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) held a workshop on Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) and forthcoming regulations under the Plastic Pollution Prevention...more
On February 28, CalRecycle held an informational workshop for SB 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. The workshop focused on the Advisory Board and Needs Assessment components of...more
Three hundred million tons of plastics are produced each year worldwide. Less than 10% of plastic waste in the United States is recycled each year. With projections showing that plastics production is expected to triple over...more
The National Waste & Recycling Association (“NWRA”) announced on February 21st that it had published a white paper titled: Bottle Bills Impact Curbside Recycling Programs (“White Paper”)...more
What's Happening? The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) published proposed regulations to amend the Recycling and Disposal Reporting System (RDRS) to increase the specificity of waste...more
California’s SB 54, or the Plastic Producer Responsibility Act, represents a substantial expansion of the increasingly popular form of legislation focused on extended producer responsibility (EPR) for plastic recycling. While...more
On November 21, 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a Science & Tech Spotlight on biorecycling of plastics. Biological recycling, or biorecycling, is an emerging technology that uses microbes, such...more
Governor Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 54 (“SB 54”), heralding an unprecedented commitment to reducing plastic production and consumption in California. The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer...more
There has been a reasonable amount of recent activity related to management (or lack thereof) of plastic waste. Two more developments this month have me wondering whether we might be near the proverbial tipping point in our...more
If you aren’t toting a reusable water bottle, bamboo straw, or canvas grocery bag, news of a plastic-eating enzyme may not resonate as revolutionary. Nevertheless, plastic waste ranks up there as one of the most pressing...more
While tragic global events make all news seem bad, there was some great news last week. As you may have read, on March 2, 2022 the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, with representatives from 175 nations...more
Many of us are familiar with the triangular “chasing arrows” recycling symbol that can be found on products and packaging. Consumers may believe they are doing their part for the environment when purchasing items with the...more
As the world contends with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, activists are sounding the alarm over another pandemic: the plastic pandemic. Environmentalist groups have been warning Americans about our overconsumption of plastic...more