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…

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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…

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What is Plastic? New Study Explores the Potential for Certain Materials to be Exempted from the Single Use Plastics Directive

On 2 July 2019, the European Commission’s Single-Use Plastics Directive (hereinafter “SUPD”) on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment entered into force. The SUPD tackles the 10 most commonly found single-use plastic items and fishing gear, which together account for approximately 70% of all marine litter found on European…

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Deposit Summit 2019

Istanbul, Turkey • October 2019 The Turkish Government confirmed in early 2019 that it will introduce deposits on beverage containers by 2021 as part of its zero waste initiative and efforts to protect Turkey’s 8,000km of coastline. The DRS is intended to reduce litter on both land and sea, by charging a refundable deposit on…

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7th European REUSE Conference

Brussels • September 2019 On September 24th, Reloop – in association with the European Association of Beverage Wholesalers (CEGROBB), the Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthifle e.V.), and the Association of Small and Independent Breweries in Europe (S.I.B.) – hosted the 7th European REUSE Conference. The aim of the conference was to examine how reuse systems…

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SUPD Becomes Law

On June 12, 2019, the Single-Use Plastics Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment was published in the European Union’s Official Journal. This marks the final step of the legislative procedure. Member States will now have two years to transpose this Directive into their national laws, until July 3,…

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