Leaders from the private sector, NGOs including the APR's Chief Policy Officer, Kate Bailey, and local, state, and federal governments gathered in Washington, DC to outline a plan of action for tackling plastic pollution in the United States."The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) is pleased to participate in this meeting and stand among nation...

Steve Alexander is the CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, which organizes the annual conference through its Resource Recycling subsidiary. "I think we have a tendency to make plastics recycling more complicated than it needs to be," Alexander said. The plastics industry loves to point to lower greenhouse gas emissions when compared with o...

Strong Leadership to Support and Grow the Plastics Recycling Industry The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) recently announced its newly elected Executive Committee and Board of Directors to lead the organization for 2023. Roxanne Spiekerman of PreZero US has been re-elected Chair for the upcoming year, with Tom Frantz of Technimark servi...

During the Plastics Recycling Conference, which Resource Recycling hosted in partnership with its parent company, the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), in National Harbor, Maryland, in early March, Monica Medina, assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs for the U.S. Department of State, shared her ...

How does Sun Chemical support customers' efforts to improve recyclability? We are active participants in several global cross-industry organizations, such as the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), which are focused on the future of packaging from a sustainable and recyclable design perspective. Members...

Attendees at the Plastics Recycling Conference delved into detailed discussions on the future of investments for secondary sortation, the importance of PCR market stability, collaborations in film recycling and more. Steve Alexander, president and CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, said brands need to adopt a more circular philosophy...

Register Now What Happens at an APR Member Meeting? General Sessions occur at the end of this meeting. APR's President offers a "State of the APR" address and other presentations address topics of broad industry appeal. Committee Meetings take place on the first day. All attendees may participate in any committee meetings they choose, with occasion...

The 2023 Plastics Recycling Conference is happening as a variety of factors continue to bring unprecedented attention to the business of plastics sustainability. Among those is a drumbeat of bills in state legislatures that shift responsibility for recycling management and funding, increase regulations on the recycling and packaging industries, and...

As we get ready for this year's Plastics Recycling Conference, a gathering of over 2000 power players in plastics and recycling industries, the Recycled Content team welcomes back Dan Leif, managing editor at Resource Recycling, Inc.  Host Kara Pochiro and Dan discuss hot topics in plastics recycling that will be covered at the conference, inc...

A parade of industry representatives — the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), the Glass Packaging Institute, the Can Manufacturers Institute, machinery supplier Atlantic Packaging and bottled water maker Blue Triton — said they'd welcome more bottle bills, which put a refundable deposit, typically a nickel or dime, on beverage containers to in...

We all play an important role in the world of plastics recycling, and with the right tools we can work together to make the circular economy a reality. The production and consumption of post-consumer resin (PCR) are essential in a circular economy. The APR PCR Certification Program provides transparency to support a reliable, robust PCR market—for ...

On Jan. 24, 2023, Waste Dive hosted a panel discussion with four recycling policy experts, including Kate Bailey, chief policy officer for the APR, to learn more about upcoming trends and lessons learned from past years. Read the full article from Waste Dive.

Kate Eagles is a program director with the Association of Plastic Recyclers and studies the PET thermoform market. Her insights came across as hopeful but also realistic when it comes to market conditions."We're not quite there yet, but I see a path forward to getting there," she said. "I think it's fair to say the strength and diversity of markets...

As in years past, 2022 saw significant developments, progress, and challenges for plastic packaging and the plastics recycling industry. Supply issues, legislative and regulatory proposals, negative media, as well as other areas of concern all combined to require greater levels of APR engagement and expertise. Policy, APR Design® for Recyclability,...

The legislation, the Washington Recycling and Packaging Act, could have a big impact on recycling more plastics packaging, including by increasing post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, APR said. "The bill's powerful combo of EPR, a deposit system and PCR requirements is the gold standard to improve recycling," APR said on Twitter. "If passed, this ...

States like Washington, Tennessee, and New Jersey have already introduced EPR for packaging bills in January and numerous other states plan to introduce their bills soon. The difference this year is that states are expected to pursue more types of EPR bills that tackle the nuances of the state's wider waste management picture, not just the mechanic...

The Recyclability Evaluation Protocols have been adjusted to fall in line with the testing procedures of the US-based Association of Plastic Recyclers with the aim of standardizing recyclability evaluations across regions. This is said to include clarifications on testing conditions and definitions and alterations to accommodate for current recycli...

Dec. 15, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is seeking public comment on potential updates and changes to the Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims, also known as the Green Guides. The Commission's Green Guides are designed to help marketers avoid making environmental marketing claims that are unfair or deceptive under Sectio...

Steve Alexander, APR President & CEO, issued the following comments on the FTC action regarding Green Guides: "The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) supports updating the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims. The FTC's goal in updating the Green Guides should be to help consumers seeking to reduce...

There were many other attempts to regulate plastics on the state and federal level this year.Following on EPR laws passed in Maine and Oregon in 2021 and Colorado and California this year, more states are pursuing their own versions, according to a recent rundown of US plastics legislation on the books or in the works. In an Oct. 19 webinar, "Plast...