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News Articles: Recycling

A house along State Route 36 in Upson County, across the street from the industrial park, with a sign opposing Brigthmark’s plastics plant. It’s one of 300 signs distributed throughout Thomaston-Upson County by the Upson Environmental Government Transparency Group. Kala Hunter

Tagged as: 

  • News

Why this small, Middle Georgia town remains divided about a $1B plastics plant

A year after its proposal, a California-based plastic-waste solution company still is pushing to build what it calls the Thomaston Circularity Center.

April 23, 2025
|
By:
  • Kala Hunter and
  • The Ledger Enquirer
California’s new lawsuit says that ExxonMobil has known for decades that recycling would not effectively stem the flow of plastic waste. Despite that knowledge, the lawsuit says, the company actively promoted recycling as a viable solution to plastic pollution.

Tagged as: 

  • Climate

California sues ExxonMobil for misleading public on plastic recycling

California’s lawsuit alleges that ExxonMobil has known for decades that recycling would not effectively stem the flow of plastic waste.

September 23, 2024
|
By:
  • Alejandra Borunda and
  • Michael Copley
Glass recycling collection container at Bacon Park Transfer Station in Savannah.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Savannah suspends its glass recycling

Savannah’s recycling efforts have taken a step backward with the suspension of a popular glass recycling program. For about 15 months, residents have been bringing glass bottles and jars to drop-off sites around the city. That program abruptly shut down last week.

March 27, 2024
|
By:
  • Mary Landers
State Farm Arena

Tagged as: 

  • News

Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena divert 3 million pounds of waste from landfills

In 2023, the venue recycled nearly 1 million pounds of materials including aluminum, plastics, cardboard, glass and more. 

January 16, 2024
|
By:
  • Rough Draft Atlanta
A person passes a pile of discarded Christmas trees along a sidewalk in New York City on Jan. 14, 2014.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

How to give your Christmas tree new life or kick it to the curb

Christmas has come and gone but your tree is probably still up. Here are some tips to dispose of your tree or give it new life.

December 29, 2023
|
By:
  • Diba Mohtasham

Tagged as: 

  • News

With Christmas over, what to do with this tree? Try 'treecycling'

As the Christmas season winds down, affiliates of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation are providing ways to recycle your live Christmas tree. The statewide group has about 200 sites around the state set aside for what they call "treecycling."

December 26, 2022
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
On left, the classic green Sprite bottle. On the right, the new clear bottle.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Sprite is ditching its iconic green bottle — and that's good for the environment

For decades, the lemon-lime drink has come in green bottles — but green plastic isn't as easily recycled as clear plastic, the company says. Fresca, Seagram's and Mello Yello will all follow suit.

July 28, 2022
|
By:
  • Becky Sullivan
A mother bison leads her calf through deep snow toward a road in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., Feb. 20, 2021.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

The federal government is planning to phase out single-use plastics at national parks

More than 300 million tons of plastic are produced in the U.S. each year, with 14 million of them ending up in the ocean, according to the Department of Interior.

June 09, 2022
|
By:
  • Ayana Archie
A worker carries used drink bottles and cans for recycling at a collection point in Brooklyn, New York. Three decades of recycling have so far failed to reduce what we throw away, especially plastics.

Tagged as: 

  • Climate

We never got good at recycling plastic. Some states are trying a new approach

New York is the latest, and largest, state to consider charging product-makers to dispose of their packaging. But lawmakers are clashing over how much to involve industry in creating a new system.

May 30, 2022
|
By:
  • Matthew Schuerman
Officials in Bibb County were counting on proof of concept from the Brightmark plastic recycling plant in Indiana, shown here, before greenlighting a similar plant in Macon.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Macon-Bibb Industrial Authority ends talks on plastics recycling plant

In late December, Brightmark admitted to the authority it failed to meet the deadline to prove its facility in another state was able to deliver the recycled end-product to another user, which was a condition of the sale.

April 11, 2022
|
By:
  • Liz Fabian
Trash sits out for collection on a Philadelphia street on Thursday. The omicron variant is sickening so many sanitation workers that waste collection in Philadelphia and other cities has been delayed or suspended.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Garbage and recyclables pile up as omicron takes its toll on sanitation workers

Some cities are so shorthanded they have temporarily stopped collecting things like recyclables or oversized junk to focus on the grosser, smellier stuff.

January 14, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

22 tips for 2022: To cut back on plastic, you need to audit how much you use

The first step in cutting back on plastic is understanding what you're using and how much of it. Do an audit of the plastics in your home to get a sense of how much plastic you use.

January 10, 2022
|
By:
  • Rebecca Davis
The Brightmark plant in Indiana.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Public weighs in on $500M in proposed bonds for novel recycling plant in Macon. Most oppose it.

Bibb County residents took an opportunity to weigh in on a plan to loan half a billion dollars to a company proposing to build in Macon what is described as the largest plastic waste management facility of its kind.

November 29, 2021
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
Holly Rutter collects cans from tailgaters on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing on Sept. 11, 2021. People in Michigan can get 10 cents for each can or bottle they return to a store.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Tailgater Trash At Michigan State University Is Treasure For Can Collectors

Game-day fans can generate a lot of trash so with the return of tailgating comes the return of a lucrative side gig: collecting the empty bottles and cans left behind to return to stores for money.

September 20, 2021
|
By:
  • Sarah Lehr
Taco Bell wants customers to collect its sauce packets so they can be turned into other products rather than sent to the landfill.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Taco Bell Wants Your Old Sauce Packets So They Can Be Recycled

More than 8 billion of the packets wind up in landfills each year. Now, the fast food chain wants customers to send them in so they can be recycled into other products.

September 10, 2021
|
By:
  • GPB Newsroom
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