August 2025 Material Matters Newsletter

Registration is open for the Illinois Circularity Conference presented by Recycle Coach, a joint venture between the IL Recycling Foundation, SWANA’s Illinois Chapter, and the IL County Solid Waste Management Association. The Conference will take place on October 14 & 15 in East Peoria. All members of IRF in good standing receive $100 off registration. The member rate is $350 per person. Daily registrations are also available. This is the only materials management conference this year focused on Illinois policy, players and progress! You don't want to miss it! Visit the conference website to see the preliminary program and to register. Sponsorships and exhibit space are also still available! Hotel rooms are available at a group rate at the Embassy Suites for most convenient access to the Conference Center space.

The summer has just flown by! Good riddance to the sauna-like weather, but suddenly our joint conference is two short months away! Staff and volunteers from IRF and our two partners have been hard at work on this joint conference, finding speakers, tour opportunities, and networking topics at the forefront of the circularity and materials management field. Please check out the preliminary program and register today. Members of IRF and other partner orgs receive discounted registration. I also strongly encourage all dues-paying members of IRF to attend (or send a proxy to attend) the annual IRF meeting, held virtually by Zoom on Wednesday, September 10th at 10am. In addition to voting on the new Board of Directors for IRF, we will briefly discuss the Board’s plan to increase member feedback and engagement towards the goal of improving our programs to fit member needs.



Clair Ryan

IRF President

([email protected])

We’re honoring standout impact, leadership, and innovation. Share your nominee’s story by completing the form: https://forms.gle/erxNiUZS1BQs9vcD9

The Illinois Portable and Medium-Format Battery Stewardship Act, signed into law in August 2024, establishes a statewide program requiring battery producers to fund and manage the collection, transportation, and recycling of covered batteries. This includes portable primary and rechargeable batteries, as well as medium-format batteries (weighing 4.4 to 25 pounds). The program, overseen by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, aims to ensure convenient collection and promote public awareness about proper battery disposal. It takes effect on January 1, 2026, with the stewardship program beginning on that date. Starting January 1, 2028, it will be illegal to dispose of covered batteries in regular trash or recycling. Retailers cannot sell batteries from producers not participating in an approved program starting July 1, 2026.

The Act aims to encourage material recovery, reduce environmental impact, increase safety, and improve battery recycling. The act excludes medical devices and vehicle batteries.

The Circular Economy Development Center, in partnership with the Business Incubator Center, Enstrom Candies, Front Range Transload and B. Kirkland Trucking, launched the first-ever Western Slope pickup for the Circular Transportation Network at Enstrom Candies, 701 Colorado Ave. in Grand Junction.

The Business Incubator Center said in a news release it marks a major step in building a circular economy in Western Colorado, connecting rural businesses to statewide sustainability infrastructure. Using an innovative backhaul transportation model, the CTN collects hard-to-recycle materials, such as plastic film, that would otherwise end up in landfills. The collected materials will be delivered to a transload facility for aggregation and baling, then transported to regional processors and manufacturers. For example, this shipment will be delivered to a Front Range transload station in Pueblo, where it will be bailed and shipped to Driven Plastics, another Colorado company, for processing. This process creates a new circular economy to recycle and use materials not readily accepted in more common recycling streams.

With a single chemical tweak, scientists may have cracked plastic’s toughest recycling challenge and made it profitable. A team of scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the University of Portsmouth in England has unveiled a game- changing enzymatic recycling process of breaking down PET, the world’s most widely used plastic.

For the first time, breaking down used PET into its building blocks is not only cleaner than

making new plastic from oil, it’s also cheaper and has a lower carbon footprint.

Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology are developing a high-speed automated system to disassemble and recycle clothing.

The process uses lasers and an AI-system to identify non-recyclable materials and cut them off the recyclable cloth, then sorts the cloth to be recycled. The system can identify large non- recyclable parts, like buttons and zippers, and find the fiber composition of the whole item, according to an article by RIT. The system uses an AI program developed by research team members Sri Priya Das and associate research professor Abu Islam. The AI can recognize details such as logos, collars, and cuffs to identify what the item might be.

Republic Services Group executives and partners gathered Thursday, Aug. 14, to celebrate the deployment of Chicago's first electric refuse fleet, featuring two new Mack LR Electric garbage trucks. Pictured from left: Marilynn Gardner, Navy Pier president and CEO; Matt Healy, Republic Services Group area president; Dr. Anthony Marinelli, Respiratory Health Association; Melissa Washington, ComEd SVP; and Brett Rogers, Republic Services Group vice president of operation technology. The ceremony highlights the partnership between Republic Services, Mack Trucks and ComEd to bring sustainable waste collection technology to the city.

Oregon has become the first state to require paper and packaging producers to pay fees into a statewide recycling and waste prevention system.

Oregon’s Recycling Modernization Act went live on Tuesday. That’s when large companies that sell paper or packaging in Oregon had to start paying into the system.

A handful of states have passed laws requiring businesses to share the costs of managing packaging waste. Oregon’s program is the first to officially launch.

For most Oregonians, the initial change may be imperceptible, but the gears have started turning. Over the next few years, cities with more than 4,000 residents will need to start offering recycling and to accept those same materials. Smaller cities can opt into the system.

Consider adding your logo here next to Helping Hands, Fortune Metals and Strategic Materials Inc. Become a 2025 BENEFACTOR for $2000.

If you have already joined and would like to upgrade to this status, send an email to [email protected]

In the realm of environmental initiatives, the Illinois Recycling Foundation (IRF) has found an unlikely hero: the printer cartridge. We have now been collecting cartridges for a full year, and our annual grand total is $997.50! That's a lot of cartridges!!! Want to participate? Just follow the steps bellow and use Program ID #32599

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” — Robert Swan