Stewardship Ontario, which helps fund that province’s residential recycling program, reported a lower recycling rate for 2019 than the year before. Less newsprint entering the recycling stream drove the decrease.
Oregon will overhaul components of its recycling system and will make packaging producers partially responsible for funding recycling of their products. It’s the second U.S. state to approve such a law.
In 2020, a producer-funded system for paper and packaging recycling achieved a significantly higher recovery rate – and spent more money – than the year prior.
The governor of Maine has signed legislation establishing extended producer responsibility for packaging materials in the state. It’s the first bill of its kind to become law in the U.S.
Legislation creating an extended producer responsibility program for packaging has cleared both the Maine House of Representatives and Senate. It’s the first such bill in the U.S. to make it that far in the legislative process, and it now goes to the state’s governor for a signature.
Coca-Cola, Unilever and Walmart are among the companies that have backed a statement from a global group in support of extended producer responsibility, the latest example of the seismic shift in corporate sentiments around the policy approach.
Bills establishing extended producer responsibility for packaging materials were introduced in a handful of states this year. Several have failed to gain traction, but at least two key proposals remain active.