Article Archives - Reloop Platform

European Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste

Today, the European Commission has published its long-awaited revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). This represents a very positive first step towards a Europe-wide circular economy, and could go a long way in reducing plastic pollution, scaling up reuse, and avoiding single-use packaging. In light of this new policy development, Reloop has…

Deposit return systems are key to solving the plastic paradox

As consumer demand for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) grows and governments continue to set regulations to increase use of recycled materials, a plastic paradox is created: there isn’t enough high-quality material being collected and recycled for manufacturers to meet the increased demand. In this article for Waste Dive, our Director of Americas Elizabeth Balkan explains how deposit…

Deposit Data

In December 2020, Reloop released the Global Deposit Book 2020: An Overview of Deposit Systems for One-Way Beverage Containers. The report offers insights on how deposit systems are financed in different jurisdictions and what recovery levels they can achieve depending on how they’re designed. In this article for Resource Recycling, Samantha Millette and Jason Wilcox…

In Our Opinion: Stay the course toward reusable packaging

Health authorities say reusable packaging poses no more risk of spreading coronavirus than single-use packaging, but the plastics industry is still trying to use COVID-19 to derail progress on reducing single-use plastics. In this article, Samantha Millette and Clarissa Morawski look at the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on reusable packaging systems, and…

Dispatches from Europe: Trying to define ‘single-use plastic’

Over the last few years, plastics have very quickly become the public face of the waste pollution crisis. The quantities of plastics that are littered or leaked into the environment, seas and oceans each year is staggering (5 to 13 million metric tons per year). Europe alone produces 25.8 million metric tons of plastic waste…

Expert Recommends Higher Container Deposit Scheme Refunds

by Robert Kelman (Director Reloop Pacific) The advance of container refund initiatives across Australia is resulting in reduced litter and increased recycling of drinks containers. But will container deposit schemes achieve their legislated targets and desired ‘best practice’? Not as far as I can see. The NSW government estimated a 32% recycling rate for drink…

Drink up! Beverage container recycling update

The ninth edition of CM Consulting’s Who Pays What report was released in October 2018. Produced since 2002, the report provides a comprehensive overview of container recovery programs in each province, including the latest data on performance and costs. The report also delves into the economic and environmental benefits of beverage container reuse and recycling, processes, end-markets,…

Dispatches from Europe: Packaging reuse in the spotlight

Last year, Collins Dictionary named “single-use” its word of the year, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Efforts to reduce marine litter and eliminate plastic waste were some of the key themes of 2018. And in fact the European Union Parliament and Council ended the year with a provisional agreement to phase out problematic…

Reloop Featured in EC’s LIFE Programme Publication

Reloop’s Managing Director, Clarissa Morawski, was recently featured in the European Commission’s LIFE Programme Publication, where she discusses the need for improved collection and sorting systems, ways to increase the market share and use of recycled plastic, and what types of changes are in store for big players throughout the recycling chain. Check out pages…

Plastic-Free Periods: Menstrual Products & Plastic Pollution

by Samantha Millette & Clarissa Morawski If you’ve followed environmental news in the last year or so, then you know that the negative impact of single-use plastics has become a hot topic. From bans and taxes on plastic bags and takeaway coffee cups to policies on reduced plastics packaging, a growing number of countries, as…