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| Municipal recycling programs "are the hubs of the reverse logistics needed to return valuable packaging to the supply chain,” said The Recycling Partnership’s director of corporate partnerships Jeff Meyers.

| Mineral processing company Mineworx said that it has developed a nontoxic leaching method that extracts precious metals from ores and e-waste. Mineworx said that this is safer for the environment than existing cyanide-based formulas.

| IBM researchers said that they have identified a chemical catalyst that creates cheaper, biodegradable plastics from plants that can be used to make products such as eating utensils and medical devices. The researchers said that while biodegradable forks and spoons already exist on store shelves, consumers often choose inexpensive petroleum-based alternatives.

| Data by the US International Trade Commission shows that the nation's steel scrap exports decreased significantly June.

| Frost & Sullivan has said in a report that rise in waste is expected to become a major reason for concern for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the future. The report said that total waste generated in GCC would increase from 94 million MT in 2015 to about 120 million MT per annum by 2020. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab emirates will predominantly lead the increase in waste generation in the region.

| India's Mahindra Intertrade Ltd. and metal scrap trading firm MSTC have entered into a joint venture agreement to set up the nation's first greenfield auto-shredding and recycling unit. The first plant under this joint venture will be established in Maharashtra or Gujarat. Mahindra Intertrade hopes to set up various plants under the JV.

| Japan's Ministry of Finance has issued the nation's waste and scrap import statistics for June 2016.

| Stuart Foster, Recoup CEO, has expressed concern that the activities and actions (or lack of them) in 2016 will potentially shape the next decade or more for the UK plastic recycling opportunity.

| Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said that progressive implementation of the producer responsibility scheme (PRS) on waste electrical and electronic equipment would boost e-waste recycling.

| American consumers prefer food items with minimal packaging as they are becoming more conscientious of their carbon footprint. About half of Americans prefer to purchase foods with minimal or no packaging in order to reduce waste.

| A research at Michigan State University in the US has showed how Geobacter bacteria grow as films on electrodes and generate electricity. This is a process that is ready to be scaled up to industrial levels. The research has been published in the current issue of Nature Communications.

| Several experts have expressed their views on sustainable trash-burning. Paul Gilman, chief sustainability officer at US-based Covanta Energy, has backed the idea of burning trash to reduce garbage and clean the environment.

| Veena Sahajwalla, a professor at the University of New South Wales, has built a prototype mini-factory at UNSW's Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology to convert old mobile phones into metal alloys.

| A new research will determine if Plaxx, a fuel made from mixed plastic waste, can be used as an alternative to crude derived fuels in industrial and marine engines.