McDonald’s says that the paper straws that many UK customers hate can’t actually be recycled (businessinsider.com)

Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) beverage can manufacturer and aluminum can sheet producer members are committing to achieving ambitious U.S. recycling rate targets including a 70 percent recycling rate by 2030. These new targets will improve the circularity of the aluminum beverage can while demonstrating to beverage companies and consumers the industry’s dedication to ensuring the aluminum beverage can remains the most sustainable package on the market. The targets are being set through CMI, which represents U.S. metal can manufacturers and their suppliers. The aluminum beverage can recycling rate was 45 percent in 2020, and the industry aims to attain even higher recycling rates beyond 2030 with an 80 percent rate by 2040 and more than 90 percent by 2050. CMI members are committed to more aluminum beverage cans completing the circular journey into new cans. There are nearly 90,000 aluminum beverage cans recycled every minute in the United States, with 93 percent going from the recycling bin back to store shelf as a new can in as little as 60 days.

From COP22 to Davos, the past few months have drawn global attention to the role of forests in achieving carbon mitigation targets. Yet beyond emissions, forests and the natural capital within them — water, air and biodiversity, provide environmental services that support the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat — making investment in the landscape so important. For too long this value has been disregarded. According to the WRI, between 2000 and 2012 Indonesia lost more than 6 million hectares of primary forest — an area almost half the size of the state of New York. Before moving forward, we need to look back. Forest loss is the result of a complex mixture of socio-economic reasons including deforestation, land degradation and low living standards. Poor practices have lead the assumption that economic gains by people come at the expense of the forests — this is a combination that can’t continue. click Read More below for more of the story

The American Tree Farm System (ATFS) has become the latest national forest certification system to seek PEFC endorsement, and stakeholders globally are invited to provide feedback on its compliance with our Sustainability Benchmarks by 7 January 2017. ATFS is one of the oldest initiatives for certifying sustainable forestry in the world. It was first launched in 1941 as a private initiative to address concerns that America's forests were being cut at unsustainable rates without reforestation. It now represents 74,000 tree farmers sustainably managing more than 7.7 million hectares of PEFC-certified forestland. ATFS first achieved PEFC endorsement back in 2005, and this latest revision of the standard will mark the fourth time the national standard has been submitted to PEFC. click Read More below for additional detail