Maine’s EPR draft rules will go to the Board of Environmental Protection to begin the formal rulemaking process in December 2023. | Yurii Prohonnyi/Shutterstock
Maine’s governor signed an extended producer responsibility law for packaging in 2021, and the state is now seeking stakeholder feedback to guide the rulemaking process.
The Dec. 15 hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works brought four panelists together to answer questions from legislators. | Katherine Welles/Shutterstock
During a two-hour hearing, U.S. senators questioned industry experts about chemicals in plastics, marine plastic pollution and extended producer responsibility.
As of 2021 there were more than 40 companies working to develop or manage chemical recycling projects in the United States. | paul prescott/Shutterstock
Mechanical recycling should take priority over chemical recycling, but there will need to be several technical solutions to the world’s plastic problem, argued panelists on a recent Product Stewardship Institute webinar.
As part of its effort to harmonize legislation and industry practices, APR has urged the Federal Trade Commission to update its so-called “Green Guides.” | DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock
A federal bottle bill, more extended producer responsibility bills and pressure on single-use plastics are all in the future of plastics legislation, industry policy experts predicted.
The founder of the Product Stewardship Institute recently advised the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on plastic pollution reduction policies. | 360b/Shutterstock
The study demonstrated 99% accuracy for the detection and sortation of films and flexibles. | Courtesy of Digimarc
A Canadian group’s study of Digimarc Recycle’s digital watermark showed that it does in fact improve accuracy for sorting flexible plastic packaging.
California’s carpet recycling rate in 2021 was 27.9%, up from 20.9% in 2020. | Colleen Michaels/Shutterstock
California’s extended producer responsibility program for carpet achieved a sharp increase in the recycling rate last year, jumping 7 percentage points from the prior year.
The president and CEO of the Flexible Packaging Association says an extended producer responsibility program for flexible packaging is the way to reduce food waste, shipping emissions and plastic in landfills. | elpashtetto/Shutterstock
Legislators recently spoke about their challenges and successes with EPR legislation. | Banlai/Shutterstock
Four state-level elected officials who have worked on extended producer responsibility bills for packaging recently discussed how they became champions of recycling policy and offered tips to help advance legislation.
For the second year in a row, Recycle BC observed “significant growth” in collected metrics tons, with a 17% increase over the past two years. | Stephen Griffith/Shutterstock
British Columbia’s paper and plastic packaging collection rates rebounded in 2021 after pandemic-related challenges, reaching a record-high recovery rate of just over 94%.