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Carbios breaks ground on demonstration plant
CLERMONT-FERRAND, France – Carbios has broken ground on its industrial demonstration plant for the enzymatic recycling of PET plastic. The demonstration plant is located near Lyon, in France’s “Chemistry Valley”, the country’s hub of innovation and industrial production in the…
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What Metro Vancouver's missing in its rush to incinerate
Readers will find this op-ed piece from the Vancouver Sun interesting. Written by John Winter — President of the BC Chamber of Commerce — the article describes Metro Vancouver’s proposed Bylaw 280, a piece of flow-control legislation that would direct…
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Packaging costs NYC taxpayers $600 million
It’s interesting to read about what Americans know or think is happening in Canada with respect to product stewardship or extended producer responsibility (EPR). This online article by Bill Sheehan, Executive Director of UPSTREAM (formerly the Product Policy Institute) recently…
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The Race to the Bottom Part 2 – Death of a Recycler
Is there a greater tragedy imaginable than that, in our endeavour consciously to shape our future in accordance with high ideals, we should in fact unwittingly produce the very opposite of what we have been striving for? ― Friedrich August von…
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Metro Vancouver responds on Bylaw 280
On May 14 I received a letter for publication from Paul Henderson, General Manager for Solid Waste Services for Metro Vancouver, BC. The letter is in response to a series of online and print articles I wrote about Metro’s proposed Bylaw 280…
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Hey hey! Ho ho! Bylaw 280's got to go!
Articles in the Abbotsford News and Tri-Cities Now report that local (and non-local) Chambers of Commerce are calling for the rejection of a bylaw proposed by Metro Vancouver that would restrict the flow of waste and control various waste-related activities…
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Mothers of Invention: Mother Parkers takes on cumulative effects, one tea serving at a time
An article published April 10, 2014 by The Canadian Press addresses a matter that’s near and dear to my heart on multiple levels. The article concerns tea and coffee company Mother Parkers, which has debuted a recyclable single-use tea and…
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The stewardship fight heats up in BC
An article in the Campbell River Mirror (updated March 25) neatly sums up the showdown developing in British Columbia over complex issues related to that province’s extensive producer responsibility program for end-of-life management of packaging and printed paper. If your…
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Canada's botched EPR plans derailing US product stewardship
When I first received the news release on March 24 from the National Waste & Recycling Association — a US trade organization that represents private waste services companies — I was quite shocked and somewhat appalled at the group’s strident position…
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Biddle and the plastic riddle
One of our contributing editors forwarded me the link recently to an excellent article in The Guardian online profiling entrepreneur plastics recycler Mike Biddle, who recently departed international recycling company MBA Polymers. The article is interesting on a number of levels,…