This Week in Waste: Top Stories from November 29 - December 3

Recycling demand is up, and the nation is moving to address some of the biggest waste sources such as food waste and e-waste. Here are this week's top stories.

1. Episode 132: Food Waste Solutions Come in Small Packages

In this post-Thanksgiving NothingWasted! podcast, we chat food waste solutions with Aidan Mouat, CEO of Hazel Technologies. We spoke with Mouat about leveraging biochemistry to help tackle the problem of food waste, the importance of working within existing systems, scaling a startup and more.

Listen to his episode here.

2. Compost Crew's Ben Parry Aims to Make Composting a Mainstream Service

Ben Parry, CEO of Compost Crew, is on a mission to make composting and organics recycling commonplace in every community across the nation.

Waste360 recently connected with Parry to discuss his business and how composting should be an essential service across the United States.

Read the full article here.

3. Stef Talks Trash Episode 40: How Grove Collaborative Makes Sustainability Accessible

Founded in 2012, Grove Collaborative entered the e-commerce space with sustainability in mind. The online retailer makes a plastic-free lifestyle achievable through its catalog of household cleaners and personal care products.

Danielle Jezienicki, Grove's director of sustainability, joined the company in 2019 with a goal to place an emphasis on the fight against plastic pollution. On this week's Stef Talks Trash, hear about how Grove Collaborative is shaping online commerce in a responsible way.

Listen to the episode here.

4. Recycling’s New Crisis: Demand is Fine, but Where is Supply?

For the last three years recycling has been plagued by a demand crisis. Prices for recyclables set record lows as supply greatly exceeded demand. The press had a field day telling stories of the woes facing curbside programs. 

Our demand crisis began easing early this year as scrap prices began to rebound. Now demand exceeds supply. The gap was so great that most curbside recyclables saw record-setting high prices. They still remain strong even as they are undergoing a normal seasonal decline. 

Read the full article here.

5. Right to Repair Fights Electronic Manufacturers to Blocking Fix It Opportunities

Increasingly, electronics manufacturers are designing devices in ways that make them painfully hard if not impossible to repair, exasperating a fast-growing e-waste problem. Today 53.6 million tons of e-waste are generated a year, causing fires at waste and recycling facilities when they contain lithium-ion batteries as well as releasing toxins into groundwater and taxing the environment in other ways.

Read the full article here.