The Polystyrene Packaging Council (PSPC) was able to spread some much needed warmth and love this winter by participating in Smile 90.4 FM’s “Winter Wish” campaign and breadtags for wheelchairs. According to Clive Ridgway, Smile 90.4FM programme director, the programme was designed to bring relief and comfort to those in need, with the help of citizens and organisations. The radio station...

A service which uses ‘spy in the sky’ satellite technologies to detect waste crime is being launched by UK firm Air & Space Evidence – the “world’s first space detective agency”.   The new service called Waste from Space, is based on the company’s development of a semi-automated detection model utilising satellite data and machine learning algorithms, enabling us it offer a...

Polystyrene packaging has been the focus of extensive research in recent years. Although these findings have been widely publicized, there still seems to be a lot of ignorance and misinformation concerning the use and recycling of both Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS). To address these misconceptions, the Polystyrene Packaging Council (PSPC) of South Africa has...

New recycling method could prevent tons of waste The company behind the new technology says the method will prevent “thousands of tons of material from going to landfill”. A plant near Huntington in Cambridgeshire has begun commercial operations to recycle plastic aluminium laminate, which is increasingly used by manufacturers to package food, drinks, cosmetics and pet food, but...

For the past week, the conversation on Leadership Lane, a forum for members of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE; Bethel, CT), has revolved around various issues involving membership and conference attendance. That evolved into a discussion of the real issues facing the industry that seem to attract industry people to these events. I suggested that when there are large challenges and...

Bioplastics are often labeled as either one of, or a combination of biobased, biodegradable or compostable. Green Dot Bioplastics’ Kevin Ireland explains some of the differences and advantages of each....

In a new report, Smithers Pira explores the hurdles to sustainable packaging growth, which include the complex interaction between products and packaging, and increasing governmental regulations. A new report from Smithers Pira, “The Future of Global Packaging to 2020,” forecasts steady growth across the sustainable packaging industry: A market valued at $839 billion in 2015 will increase at...

A materials recovery facility spent $671,000 to buy and install glass cleanup equipment, which is generating $296,000 in annual savings. The project in Guelph, Ontario shows how investing in glass recovery technologies can pencil out favorably for MRFs. Many MRFs struggle to manage glass collected in curbside carts. Often mixed up, broken and highly contaminated, the material costs U.S. sorting...

As thousands of experts convened in New York to discuss the solutions required, ISWA’s Antonis Mavropoulos and Costas Velis explain the organisation’s new global initiative on Marine Litter – which it will be presenting at the event. There may be no silver bullet, but the urgent problem requires a rethink, not only about plastics, but our economic models, development strategies and the future...

The new publications are about ‘Education & Training in Packaging’ and ‘Packaging and Supply Chain Management’ The Position Paper on ‘Education & Training in Packaging’, written by WPO Vice President, Pierre Pienaar, gives a clear and overall understanding of what packaging is and the role that education can and should havein the packaging field.  “The purpose of this paper is to help...