Stefanie Valentic

Wisconsin adds wearables, Oregon moves to a PRO model and Illinois and Hawaii broaden scope as states retool electronics EPR programs built for CRTs.

CalRecycle has logged 64,000 product line items and collected more than it expected. Recyclers say the smallest devices still don't pay.

With no federal rule in sight, New Jersey, Washington, North Carolina and Texas are each taking a different approach to who pays for end-of-life solar panels.

CTA wants states to trade collection targets for convenience standards and pay local collectors. State regulators welcomed the shift but say rural service remains a challenge.

The timeline for the multi-million dollar MRF project aligns with the rollout of Maryland's EPR law.

New Jersey doesn't collect cell phones. California tracks 64,000 battery-embedded devices. State and federal officials at the E-Scrap Conference said aligning EPR laws is unlikely, but aligning what they cover would help.

The Auto Care Association says the state requires auto parts sellers to pay both CAA and Interchange 360 for the same product.

NAW is asking a federal court to pause Oregon’s packaging EPR law for its members until the Ninth Circuit rules, because CAA invoices are due in January, months before the appeal is likely to be heard.

Republic Services’ new 45-ton-per-hour Bridgeton MRF is slated to open in 2028, as St. Louis is still deciding how its residents will recycle.

Circular Action Alliance CEO Jeff Fielkow will leave the organization later this year, putting the country’s largest packaging producer responsibility

The final plan sets a $1.1 billion budget for 2027, down from as much as $1.87 billion in June, and concedes that even PET and HDPE bottles fall short of the law's first plastic recycling target.

Eleven states have passed battery EPR laws since 2022, but Product Stewardship Institute staff told RCon attendees that most still exempt the vapes, toys and other built-in-battery products behind many facility fires.

AI audit systems could become a compliance tool under EPR, but who pays for them is still being worked out.

From Michigan's fraud cases to Hawaii's scaled-back audits, a new CRI guidebook maps where the 10 US deposit states are losing money and what they can do about it.

WM's Ryan Nordt says e-commerce, battery fires and state EPR laws are reshaping what reaches the company's facilities, and that recycled-content requirements could be the policy that pulls more material through to domestic end markets.

Battery fires are pushing recycling toward becoming "an uninsurable industry," NSAC founder Heidi Sanborn said.

Decades of voluntary packaging work have hit an economic wall. EPR and stronger regulation are what will move the needle.

The city of St. Louis has moved from free alley recycling to a new model to combat its recycling contamination rates.

California will pull disposable nicotine vapes from store shelves by 2028 under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, while a companion bill gives schools a hazardous waste route for vapes confiscated from students.

NAW is challenging an Oregon judge's ruling in favor of the state's extended producer responsibility law.