| Packaging is critical for enhancing the functionality of products as well as winning over new consumers. Of late, smart and sustainable packaging trends have gathered pace owing to busy lifestyles and rising per capita disposable income of consumers across the globe.

| According to a recently published study by industry consultants Applied Market Information Ltd. (AMI Consulting), the plastics recycling industry will have to develop and grow considerably to meet 2030 EU plastics packaging recycling targets, along with the effect of the Chinese waste import ban.

| Recycling charity Recoup is once more supporting the plastics recycling industry via their support of the UK Best Recycled Plastic Product Award 2018.

| World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) was 151.4 million tonnes (Mt) in June 2018, a 5.8% increase compared to June 2017.

| Led by Western Europe, increasing regulations and bans against plastic bags and other single-use plastic items such as drinking straws is driving growing demand for biodegradable plastics, according to new analysis from IHS Markit.

| The Recylex Group has released its financial information for the first half year of 2018 and for the second quarter of 2018. Consolidated sales for the six-month period to June 30th 2018 totaled €194.6 million, down 11% on the first six months of 2017.

| Ferrarelle is a Italian company bottling mineral waters. It is one of the first companies in Europe involved in the beverage sector, that have decided to close the loop in PET bottles treatment by internally handling the whole process.

| According to Future Market Insights, the Excessive amounts of waste generated from food processing will be rampant in the food waste management market, creating more opportunities for key players.

| The reader survey of RECYCLING magazine will run until July 29.

| Proposal to impose concentration level for certain flame retardants could make responsible recycling of WEEE impossible.

| Tomra Sorting Recycling will show how X-Tract and LIBS technologies can help increase the worldwide supply of aluminium at the same time as enhancing sustainability.

| In light of the upcoming votes on the Plastics Strategy and the Single-Use Plastics Products and the implementation of the Circular Economy Package, a coalition of 34 organisations and companies call for EU action on recycled content mandates for plastics to close the Circular Economy loop.

| Carbios has announced new results in the optimization of its biorecycling process of waste PET plastics. The hydrolysis of PET plastics into their original building-blocks now reaches a conversion rate of 97% in only 16 hours.

| Neste, producer of renewable diesel, is now exploring ways to introduce liquefied waste plastic as a future raw material for fossil refining.

| The world creates a whopping 2.12 billion tonnes of waste annually, and it is estimated hat this will reach 4 billion tonnes by 2100. Though the world's authorities are pushing out more legislation and acts to try and deal with the problem, there's only so much within their power - the rest boils down to us, as a species, to work on.