Plastic Recycling Archives - Plastic Waste Solutions
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What a difference good EPR makes – Europe
Posted on January 15, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic Recycling, Stewardship Waste ProgramsA quiet but effective European revolution is catching on and spreading across the world – Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Source: What a difference good EPR makes - Inside Waste A quiet but effective European revolution is catching on and spreading across...
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Urgent government action needed to protect Australia’s plastic packaging recycling future
Posted on January 14, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/urgent-government-action-needed-to-protect-australias-plastic-packaging-recycling-future/ Australia uses more than 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year – most of it imported – yet more than one million tonnes end up landfilled or littered. That’s the equivalent of about 100,000 garbage trucks full...
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Recycling PET works. So why isn’t the US doing it better? – USA
Posted on January 9, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: Recycling PET works. So why isn’t the US doing it better? - Plastics News The 2024 U.S. PET bottle recycling rate was one of the highest in nearly three decades at 30.2 percent according to the National Association for...
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California report says plastics recycling well below EPR targets -USA
Posted on January 9, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: California report says plastics recycling well below EPR targets - Plastics News The CalRecycle report said multimaterial aseptic and gable-top cartons, for example, have less than a 1 percent rate. A Los Angeles Times story said milk cartons...
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ACOR – urgency needed over plastics recycling – Inside Waste
Posted on January 8, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: ACOR - urgency needed over plastics recycling - Inside Waste Australia uses more than 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year—most of it imported—yet more than 1 million tonnes end up landfilled or littered. Although Australian recyclers have the...
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Canada scraps export ban on single-use plastics
Posted on January 7, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: Canada scraps export ban on single-use plastics - Plastics News Canada has canceled its planned ban on the export of certain single-use plastics. The policy change, announced Oct. 20 by Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin, reverses...
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EU launches support measures for plastics recyclers
Posted on January 7, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: EU launches support measures for plastics recyclers - Plastics News The Commission announced the measures in a Communication called ‘Accelerating Europe’s transition to a circular economy: a pilot for boosting the circularity of plastics’. A...
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Plastics Pact says mechanical recycling should be prioritized over chemical – USA
Posted on December 21, 2025 by DrRossH in Plastic RecyclingSource: Plastics Pact says mechanical recycling should be prioritized over chemical - Plastics News The U.S. Plastics Pact is arguing that traditional mechanical recycling of plastics should be prioritized over chemical recycling because it has a lower environmental impact, although...
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Thailand’s plastic-waste import ban reignites global debate over green-tech inequality
Posted on December 21, 2025 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic RecyclingSource: Thailand’s plastic-waste import ban reignites global debate over green-tech inequality < People & Events < 기사본문 - 헤럴드인사이트 The below was written by a grade 10 student. If a young student can understand this then grownups should too! Thailand’s decision...
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Why the Queensland CDS needs urgent reform – Inside Waste
Posted on November 20, 2025 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic RecyclingThe Queensland CDS began on 1 November 2018, a year after the breakthrough NSW scheme (Return & Earn), and it isn't working. Source: Why the Queensland CDS needs urgent reform - Inside Waste Now we have the results from the...
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How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter?