Here’s the Waste Robotics Market News including the 10 key news of this week in waste and recycling industries.
Who Killed Recycling?
June 1st, 2018 – Recycling is in the dumps. The Chinese government’s decision to ban mixed plastic and mixed paper recyclables imports sent recycling markets into a tailspin. Media outlets are running stories of recyclables going to disposal instead of end markets. Worse yet, this turbulence is likely to continue for another year or longer. Recycling will survive this storm as it has survived others, but will we learn from it or will we continue to repeat our mistakes? When I started to write this column, my idea was to focus on who “killed” recycling. Yet the reality is that very few people actually tried to kill recycling. Instead, the harm has been inflicted by its friends, not its enemies.
Read more via Waste 360
Hospitality Industry Works to Combat Plastic Waste
June 1st, 2018 – The world is battling a plastic waste crisis and to help combat the issue, hotels, airlines, cruise lines and restaurants are minimizing the use of single-use plastic, such as straws, cups, bottles and laundry bags. Hilton, for example, has committed to eliminating plastic straws from its hotels by the end of this year. It’s also working to remove plastic bottles from its conference and event spaces. Carnival Cruise Line is also making an effort to reduce plastic by only offering straws for non-frozen drinks upon request.
Read more via Waste 360
Company Turns Flint, Mich., Water Bottles into Eyeglasses
June 1st, 2018 – Recognizing the issue of single-use plastic water bottles piling up in Flint, Mich., two former college students used their creativity to come up with a fun waste reduction solution: eyeglasses made from recycled plastic. The company, Genusee, is focusing on reducing plastic waste, using 15 water bottles to create each pair of glasses. The glasses come in classic black and crystal fog, a multiuse canister case and a polish bag, which is sewn in Flint at a center that provides women with training.
Read more via Waste 360
Potato chip bags, plastic pouches now accepted in new Recycle B.C. program
June 3rd 2018 – Just in time for the summer barbecue season, Recycle B.C. has launched a new collection process for potato chip bags and additional flexible plastic packaging that can often be the hardest materials to recycle and ending up in landfills. The new program is now implemented at 116 depots across the province. People can bring stand-up pouches, potato chip bags, zip lock bag and mesh bags used for produce to selected depots. Allen Langdon, managing director of Recycle B.C. said the project will help the organization determine how best to recycle the materials, which are among the fastest growing packaging on the market.
Read more via Red Deer Advocate
Food waste is destroying the planet. Doing something about it starts at home
June 3rd 2018 – On a recent Monday, my kitchen was full of breakfast options: apple-topped streusel, lemon poppyseed muffins, almond Danish. There were also ripe bananas, dented boxes of cereal and several cartons of eggs, each with one cracked and cemented in its cardboard divot, but 11 intact and gleaming. The bounty came from the dumpster of a local grocery store. It’d been retrieved by my husband and two friends the night before. We’d keep what our family of four could eat — and there would be still be extra to take to a nearby food pantry.
Read more via LA TIMES
Coles supermarkets to cut food waste going to landfill to make 100 million meals for the hungry
June 3rd 2018 – ONE of the nation’s biggest supermarkets has promised to greatly reduce the amount of good food it throws out and buries in rubbish tips and instead help provide 100 million meals for those going hungry. Ahead of the removal of single-use plastic bags in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia from July 1, Coles has responded to customer calls to cut its food waste levels and the amount of plastic wrapping on fruit and vegetables to improve its environmental footprint*.
Read more via Herald Sun
Confusing ‘best before dates’ are leading to massive amounts of food waste
May 31 2018 – How willing are you to consume a product slightly past its best before date? A new National study claims most Canadians are saying “no thanks” to items past a printed date and it’s leading to massive amounts of waste. The report conducted by National Zero Waste Council, claims best before dates are confusing consumers who believe food past its labels dates could be unhealthy. According to the council, every Canadian wastes almost 400 kilograms of food a year and about half of that waste happens in homes.
Read more via Kelowna Now
Tyson Foods launches ¡Yappah! brand to fight food waste
May 31st 2018 – Tyson Foods’s Innovation Lab has created a new brand called ¡Yappah! which aims to reduce food waste by utilising upcycled vegetables and grains to create new products. ¡Yappah! was developed by the Tyson Innovation Lab over a six month period, and will make its debut via Indiegogo on 31 May. A range of Protein Crisps will initially be released by the ¡Yappah! brand, and four flavours will be available. Both chicken carrot and chicken celery are made from upcycled vegetable puree, while the chicken IPA white cheddar and shandy beer flavoured Chicken flavours are made from spent grain from the brewing process, which will be provided by Molson Coors.
Read more via Food Bev
Calgary hands out 2M kilograms of compost to local gardeners
May 31st 2018 – After four weekends of giving away compost to more than 13,000 local gardeners, the City of Calgary says the program is done for the year. Laura Hamilton, a waste diversion specialist with the City’s waste services department, says between 1.5 to two million kilograms of compost went to people’s gardens. “People were really excited about it. The one thing we were really surprised with was how many new gardeners we had coming to the event,” Hamilton said.
Read more via CBC
Let worms do their work for better compost
June 3rd 2018 – In the last column, we talked about the myriad processes involved in the decomposition process, especially as it concerns a home composting system. The cost of composting at home is negligible, but the benefits are enormous. Valuable waste products from our yard and home are recycled rather than dumped in a landfill. Compost helps clay soil “breathe” and sandy soil retain water longer. Not only does compost contribute nutrients to the soil, but it helps plants utilize those nutrients. It is as close to a magic ingredient as possible. Vermicompost bins use red wiggler worms to break down common kitchen waste to form a particularly rich and valuable form of compost. The smallest apartment has room for one.
Read more via Reporter News
Follow Waste Robotics for more industry news!
