A Liebherr L 586 XPower wheel loader was recently put into operation at the Dowideit Recycling GmbH machine park in Wustermark.

According to a recent Fact.MR study, the recycled construction aggregates market continues to remain influenced by a plethora of factors, ranging from resurgent construction activities to infrastructure development efforts of governments worldwide, particularly in developing economies.

ZenRobotics and Plexus Recycling Technologies will deliver robotic recycling systems to Zanker Recycling in San José, California. ZenRobotics Recycler units will be the first of their kind on the west coast and will be operational by fall 2018.

The European Union has reached a political agreement on updating its water pollution rules. According to negotiators, the deal aims to modernize monitoring systems and include more pollutants on the EU's watch list.

The FDA LNO, logged as Prenotification Consultation (PNC) No. 3291, authorises Nextloopp rPP for use at levels up to 100% across all food types and under Conditions of Use A through H, spanning the full spectrum of applications - from high-temperature heat sterilisation to frozen storage.

Current recycling processes are inadequate for removing these odorous substances, which have migrated into the material during the product's life cycle.  A multi-stage treatment is required to eliminate these odours sufficiently, allowing the pellets to be processed into high-quality end products for applications in industries such as packaging, automotive, and consumer goods.

Stadler has successfully completed the new municipal solid waste sorting plant for Stockholm Vatten och Avfall (SVOA). Designed to process 50 tons of waste per hour, the new facility is equipped with fully automated sorting lines that recover organic waste from household garbage, as well as plastic and metals accidentally mixed in the residual material arriving at the plant. This reduces the volume of materials destined for incineration to generate power and heat water, consequently lowering CO2 emissions.

In this context, the BIOPROCESS project, led by Aimplas, aims to improve the mechanical and barrier properties of bioplastics to produce films for high-performance flexible packaging in sectors such as food, cosmetics and personal hygiene, detergents, and cleaning. The research involves two collaborating companies: Potato Bioplastics, a manufacturer of new bioplastics from renewable sources, and Gaviplas, a flexible film manufacturer.

"We urge policymakers to implement these six strategic actions - ranging from trade defence mechanisms like tariffication of imports to fiscal incentives — to address the deep recession we are experiencing," said Ton Emans, President of Plastics Recyclers Europe. "Plastics recycling must be recognised as an essential sector for the EU -critical both for competitiveness and environmental progress — and it must be protected accordingly." 

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been in the spotlight for more than a decade due to their potential impacts on human health and the environment. This is especially true for certain compounds such as PFOS and PFOA, while the impacts associate with the chemical form of PFAS known as 'PFAS polymers', which in simple terms consist of larger molecules, have been considered to be lower.

The most recent studies focus on the search for cheaper alternative substrates, such as agro-industrial waste or industrial by-products, and on extraction strategies to reduce product costs. In this way, the aim is to facilitate their incorporation into a market dominated by petroleum-based plastics. The most commercialised PHAs have certain limitations to be processed by conventional technologies, so one of the objectives is to optimise them so that they can be used in different applications within the plastics industry, as well as to scale up their production and supply companies in the sector.

For some time now, Europe has been obliged to collect organic waste separately. However, this obligation is by no means implemented everywhere. The Life Biobest project has put forward proposals for the implementation of effective biowaste management in the EU.

Sopsa's first major project in Romania is with Sector 6 of Bucharest, consisting of the installation of more than 700 high-capacity underground waste containers, all locally produced. Nearly half of the units have already been installed. Sopsa operates a production unit in Eli Parks, occupying 6,400 square meters of industrial and office space, following an initial investment of around 2 million €.

Food tops the bill as the best performer, according to British shoppers, some way ahead of household products in second place. Clothing ranks third, but only among 13% of those surveyed, with cosmetics and fashion accessories scoring very poorly for planet friendly packaging performance.

Lindner Washtech, based in Feistritz/Drau, Austria, and Großbottwar, Germany, is renowned worldwide for its complete systems that incorporate the shredding, sorting, washing and drying of a wide range of plastic types. In the past few years the company has predominantly focused on optimising the process along the value-added chain and new concepts for cleaning methods. With the goal of optimising the entire process chain in plastics recycling, a collaboration was initiated with the Erema Group. The close cooperation between Lindner Washtech and Erema since the start of 2023 has already produced significant process optimisations.

The R-PET market has turned bullish in Q1, with increases in the free delivered (FD) northwest Europe (NWE) colourless (C) bale and flake prices in March ahead of the onset of peak preform production season during Q2, which could push R-PET demand higher still.

The RECLAIM solution uses multiple robots with different types of pickers to efficiently collect and handle various types of waste according to their composition. Additionally, AI-powered computer vision can accurately identify waste, allowing the robots to maximize sorting effectiveness. Integrated within a portable container, these innovations will significantly enhance local-scale material recovery activities. This portable equipment can be deployed anywhere, facilitating material recovery close to the source and increasing recycling opportunities to promote a circular economy for plastics.

Aimplas joins forces in the REFEST project, which aims to retrofit traditional fishing fleets with innovative, low-cost technologies to significantly reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Although a slight drop (1%), the total amount of aluminium recycled from cans continued to increase to a record level of 580,000 tonnes, an increase of 10,000 tonnes (or 1.7%) on the previous year. This represents a total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions saving of 5.4 million tonnes of CO₂eq)

The demand for sustainable solutions in packaging has never been higher, particularly in the food industry, where consumers are increasingly drawn to products that promise environmental responsibility. This trend has sparked a significant shift towards paper-based packaging, driven by both market forces and regulatory imperatives.