This Week in Waste: Top Stories Mar 25 – Mar 28

#5 - PLA Scores Low in Latest Research

PLA, commercialized in the 1990s by Cargill and Dow Chemicals, is a light-weight semi-crystalline biopolymer, which comprises about 21 percent of the bioplastics market. A study by Eunomia Research & Consulting and the Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) is the latest to cast skepticism, reporting PLA, a decades-old, first-generation biopolymer, is fraught with upstream and downstream issues.

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#4 - Eastman Selected for $375 Million DOE Funding, Announces Second Molecular Recycling Facility in U.S.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected Eastman, the global specialty materials company, for award negotiations of up to $375 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding.

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#3 - Clean Harbors Expands with Acquisition of HEPACO

Clean Harbors, Inc. has completed the purchase of HEPACO, an Eastern U.S.-based provider of field and emergency response services. Norwell, Mass.-based Clean Harbors finalized the transaction for $400 million in cash as part of an agreement with Gryphon Investors - HEPACO's owners.

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#2 - Federal Agencies Buckle Down on Food Waste

The U.S. government has been entrenched in work to tackle food loss and waste—from supporting businesses with aggressive food waste prevention goals—to investing multimillions to advance technologies addressing challenges across the food supply chain.

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#1 - Producer Responsibility is Good for Business and Good for Colorado

Colorado is poised to have one of the nation’s best recycling programs as it implements its best-in-class Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program. The newly released Circular Action Alliance (CAA) report charts a course towards raising the recycling rate to as high as 50% by 2035. This is all possible because the state passed HB24-1355, creating a producer responsibility program for recycling in Colorado.

Read the full article here.