General
September 1, 2011 It is difficult to find people in the plastics recycling industry who will criticize The Coca-Cola Company on record, but my conversations this week with a handful of plastics recyclers made clear they think Coke's much-hyped bottle recycling efforts in Spartanburg, SC, were done-in by the company's own lobbying against bottle deposit laws. The law of unintended consequences is in play, they say. Plastics Today
August 25, 2011 In response to a story in last week's newsletter which raised some questions on the latest As You Sow report on container recycling, the organization's senior program director, Conrad MacKerron reached out to Resource Recycling in an attempt to clarify the story. Responding to the criticism that companies listed in the report were rated higher by the organization, despite little measurable increase in the container recycling rate, MacKerron said that companies received higher overall grades due to advancements in other areas. Resource Recycling
Save the water (Letter to the Editor) Tom Newman
August 25, 2011 I am so incensed at this whole water dumping scam debacle that I could spit. For one thing, if the person buying the water took it home and drank it and then returned the bottles three days later, there would be no problem. My biggest concern in these cases is the wasting of the water. Either drink it or leave it. Bangor Daily News
August 24, 2011 The federal government is moving to crack down on a bizarre form of food-stamp fraud that's flushing away taxpayer dollars. The scam is called "water dumping." FoxNews.com
August 24, 2011 Coca-Cola and United Resource Recovery (URRC) are injecting life back into their US PET recycling plant after a six month project to overhaul operations. According to news reports, the joint venture, which makes food-grade pellets, was shut down last March. Beverage Daily
Oregon
August 29, 2011 A $10 million plastic bottle recycling plant opening in St. Helens early next year is expected to recycle 90 percent of the plastic bottles used in Oregon, while bringing in 25 jobs by December. The 44,000 square-foot facility is being constructed by ORPET, a new Oregon-based recycling partnership, and is anticipated to become the preeminent polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycler in the northwest. The Daily News
Massachusetts
August 29, 2011 At Polar Beverages, we take being a green company very seriously. ...Given our commitment to being environmentally conscious, we find proposals to expand the state’s bottle bill especially troubling. Worcester Business Journal
Aug 26, 2011 On Aug. 17, The Herald News printed a guest opinion by Chris Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association, in which he opposed the expanded bottle bill. I wish to respond. The Herald News
August 26, 2011 Every year across Massachusetts, more than 30,000 tons of non-carbonated beverage bottles are buried in landfills, burned in waste-to-energy plants, or tossed onto our streets, parks and beaches. That’s enough plastic bottles to fill Fenway Park – from the press box to the Green Monster – five times. The Community Journal
Australia
August 25, 2011 ON a less inspiring note, Tasmania leads the national table of shame as the state with the worst litter problem, far behind Victoria and South Australia, which has container deposit legislation. The Mercury
Aug 23, 2011 BEVERAGE containers again are the dominant litter problem across the nation, according to the annual National Litter Index from Keep Australia Beautiful. And South Australia’s container deposit scheme has the lowest volumes of litter, including beverage containers, of all states and territories. Cowra Community News
