California Waste Solutions Supports Oakland Illegal Dumping Cleanup

OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — California Waste Solutions, Inc. is putting AI scanners and expanded optical sorting to work at its Bay Area plants as Oakland launches a new aerial AI program which will help the City of Oakland to detect illegal dumping before it sits on the street.

The city announced Aerbits on September 10 consisting of AI-assisted aerial imagery meant to spot abandoned trash instead of waiting on 311. Separately, California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s longtime recycling contractor, is installing EverestLabs AI scanners at its 10th Street material recovery facility in Oakland and increasing Pellenc optical-sorting capacity at the Timothy MRF in San Jose.

California Waste Solutions announced this month that it is adding AI components to its optical sorters. The company’s most recent investment in the AI optical sorters stand to support the city in its aim to crack down on the problem of illegal waste dumping.

“We are delighted to help the City of Oakland where we are from in fighting illegal waste dumping,” said Michael Duong, President of California Waste Solutions. “Our family company grew up in Oakland and expanded to southern California and as far away as Vietnam, but everything we built has been based on my father and grandfather’s early days picking up trash on the streets of Oakland. Illegal disposal of trash has always presented the city with a huge problem and we are supportive of the City’s efforts to curb it.”

Mayor Barbara Lee rolled out Aerbits with founder Brian Johnson last week. The flights sit inside a larger cleanup push with more cameras, higher fines and a $9.2 million Crankstart-backed investment announced in June. Illegal dumping is still one of the loudest quality-of-life complaints in the city.

California Waste Solutions collects Oakland’s recyclables and runs them through the plant. The new Oakland scanners watch material entering the container line and report what is still headed for disposal. There they count items, record belt burden and show how much belt is left exposed, so operators can see when a line is running too deep or too uneven to recover what should have been pulled.

California Waste Solutions has used optical sorting in its U.S. plants since the mid-2000s. By investing in the AI sorting technology, California Waste Solutions is investing in both recovery of more items and purity of the recyclable material coming out of the convey belts.

“There is no question that the more you reduce illegal waste dumping, the more you see high-quality results come out of recycling facilities such as ours,” said David Duong, Founder of California Waste Solutions. “We have seen this over the past four decades that we’ve been in the recycling business, from the ground up, picking trash off the street, to running sophisticated factories like we have today employing hundreds of skilled workers. The better organized and regulated the trash disposal process is, the better the result for customers – which at the end of the day, really means the city’s residents.”

The new AI scanners at California Waste Solutions give crews a running record instead of a walk-through once a shift. If the same recyclable keeps showing up at the end of the line, supervisors can look upstream to settings, loading, and contamination and change the operation. That data is also helps determines what comes next. Robotics, more optical sorting, or both are under consideration; the company only adds machines when it knows what is actually being missed.

Loads still change by the truck as packaging formats shift, too. Contamination changes how material rides the belt while batteries, plastic bags, food waste and trash still belong nowhere near a recycling cart. For these, more specialist recycling facilities are required. California Waste Solutions has collected household batteries at the curb in Oakland since 2015 and plans curbside battery collection for single-family homes in San Jose in early 2027.

“When people think of recycling materials, they often just think of junk lumped together as one collective mass. That’s not how it works at all, however. Recycling requires an extremely careful process of first identifying what you’re recycling and then going in to determine how you are going to recycle, if you can recycle it at all. This is why the City is absolutely right to crack down on illegal, dumping, since that process bypasses all these necessary steps and corrupts the end result. We are thrilled that our new AI optical sorters will play a more defined role in helping the city to achieve these aims,” said Michael Duong.

The company is offering plant access at 10th Street: a representative load, the EverestLabs scanners in operation, Pellenc optical sorting in San Jose, and the items crews pull in a typical week. Labels that say recyclable are not always recoverable once they reach that belt which is a distinction that matters more as SB 54 moves into implementation and California’s expanded CRV rules take hold.

California Waste Solutions, founded in Oakland in 1992, serves more than 343,000 customers in Oakland and San José and operates six Bay Area facilities.

About California Waste Solutions

Founded in 1992 by David Duong, California Waste Solutions provides recycling collection, processing, customer service, and material recovery for residential, commercial, and municipal customers in Northern California, including Oakland and San José. Through its subsidiary Vietnam Waste Solutions, the company also operates large-scale environmental infrastructure in Ho Chi Minh City. Headquarters: 1211 Embarcadero, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94606. www.calwaste.com.

Media Contact

Wendy Nguyen

PR & Marketing Manager

California Waste Solutions

wendynguyen@calwaste.com

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SOURCE California Waste Solutions

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Corteva (NYSE: CTVA) today announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has declared effective Vylor’s Registration Statement on Form 10. The Form 10 includes information regarding the business, strategy and priorities for Vylor, as well as details about the separation of Vylor into an independent, publicly traded company, which is expected to be completed on October 1, 2026. The Form 10 can be found on Corteva’s website at: SEC Filing | Corteva Agriscience.

As previously announced, upon the completion of the separation, each Corteva stockholder of record as of the close of business on September 24, 2026 will receive one share of Vylor common stock for every share of Corteva common stock held of record by such stockholder as of such time. The distribution is expected to occur prior to 9:30 a.m., New York City time, on October 1, 2026. Vylor common stock has been authorized for listing on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and is expected to begin “regular-way” trading on the NYSE under the symbol “VYLR” on October 1, 2026. Corteva has determined that there will not be “when-issued” trading in Vylor common stock or “ex-distribution” trading in Corteva common stock prior to the distribution.

About Corteva

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry-leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and a technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to maximizing productivity for farmers, while working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.

About Vylor 

Vylor is an advanced seed and genetics company that has, for more than a century, been focused on delivering groundbreaking innovation to farmers. Anchored in the agriculture industry’s most elite germplasm and transformative biotech, Vylor leverages its scientific expertise to deliver next generation technology to help farmers around the world boost yields. With its expertise in advanced science, leading routes-to-market and an expanding licensing business, Vylor drives value and delivers growth for farmers, customers and shareholders – and in doing so, helps feed, fuel and clothe the world. More information can be found at www.vylor.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Words such as “believe,” “will,” “plan,” “may,” “expect,” “see,” and variations of such words and similar future or conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Corteva’s intent to separate and its related expectations for Corteva and Vylor. These forward-looking statements reflect management’s current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and beyond Corteva’s and Vylor’s control.

Important factors that may affect Corteva’s or Vylor’s respective businesses and operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, whether the objectives of the separation will be achieved; the terms, structure, benefits and costs of any action or transaction resulting from the separation; the timing of any such separation or related action and whether any such separation will be consummated at all; the risk that the announcement of the intended separation could have an adverse effect on the ability of Corteva or Vylor to retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and other business relationships and on its operating results and business generally; the risk the separation could divert the attention and time of each company’s management; the risk of any unexpected costs or expenses resulting from the separation process or separation itself; and the risk of any litigation relating to the separation, as well as the risks and uncertainties described in Corteva’s and Vylor’s risk factors, as they may be amended from time to time, set forth in their respective filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Corteva and Vylor disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update, revise, or withdraw any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by applicable law or regulation.

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SOURCE Corteva Agriscience

BANGKOK, Sept. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA) today announced the official shortlist for the SMARTIES™ Thailand 2026 awards. The prestigious list features the nation’s most impactful marketing campaigns, selected from a highly competitive pool of entries that successfully integrate technology, localized creativity, and measurable business impact. View the full shortlist here.

This year’s Thailand shortlist reflects a dynamic shift in both the local consumer and marketing landscapes. As Thai audiences rapidly adapt to new digital realities, shifting expectations, and omnichannel experiences, marketers are evolving their strategies far beyond traditional boundaries. The nominated campaigns demonstrate how brands are successfully navigating these complex changes mastering the booming social commerce ecosystem and driving tangible business outcomes through agile, insight-driven marketing.

“What stands out in Thailand’s 2026 shortlist is the profound maturation of the market, where world-class creativity now intersects with rigorous business growth,” said Rohit Dadwal, CEO of MMA APAC and Global Head of SMARTIES™. “The caliber of submissions has surged this year, with Thai brands delivering highly effective, scalable campaigns that set a new benchmark for the marketing community.”

The selection process was guided by a diverse jury panel of industry leaders and experts from across Thailand through a rigorous two-stage evaluation process.

Rohit Dadwal added: “The strategic depth and execution of this year’s entries made the judging highly competitive. The shortlisted campaigns stood out for their ability to deliver measurable growth in a rapidly changing environment.”

Winning a SMARTIES™ award offers industry recognition on a global scale. Victorious campaigns will be featured in the MMA SMARTIES Business Impact Index, which highlights the best in marketing worldwide. Furthermore, they will be added to the WARC 100 ranking, as well as RECMA’s global scoring of media agencies.

The winners of the SMARTIES™ Thailand 2026 will be officially announced at the highly anticipated Gala Night on October 26, 2026. The ceremony will take place at the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit, starting at 6:00 PM. This celebratory event provides a unique opportunity for industry leaders to network, celebrate their achievements, and honor the campaigns that have made the most significant impact over the past year.

Tickets for the Gala Night can be reserved here.

About the Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA)
The Marketing + Media Alliance is the global non-profit community of CMOs advancing marketers’ ability to create value, with 825+ members across 16 countries. mmaglobal.com

About SMARTIES™
SMARTIES™ is the prestigious marketing awards program hosted by MMA, recognizing excellence in marketing effectiveness and innovation. The SMARTIES Awards celebrate campaigns that push creative boundaries while delivering measurable business impact. With programs spanning local, regional, and global markets, SMARTIES has become the industry’s most respected benchmark for marketing that drives real growth.

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SOURCE The Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA)