Advocates for the New York Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act held a press event on March 19 at the state capitol. | Office of State Sen. Pete Harckham/Tom Staudter
Lawmakers in a dozen states have introduced bills concerning extended producer responsibility for packaging, ranging from studies and tweaks of current programs to full EPR programs.
HB 3433 would add glass wine bottles to Oregon’s container deposit program, but the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative does not want to take on the additional material stream. | Fotosr52/Shutterstock
The question of how glass wine containers should be managed in Oregon – under the state deposit return system or under extended producer responsibility – remains active, though wine bottles seem destined for EPR for now.
Looking across all product categories, right-to-repair legislation has been introduced in 49 out of 50 states in the past few years. | maxfrost/Shutterstock
The momentum behind consumer electronics right-to-repair bills that has been building since 2021 doesn’t seem to be ebbing, with 10 bills introduced so far this year and supporters anticipating far more to come.
Despite progress, producers are largely still not ready for approaching EPR requirements, industry players predict. | Josep Curto/Shutterstock
With about six months to go until the first extended producer responsibility program for packaging in the U.S. goes live, producers are still largely unprepared but moving in the right direction, those monitoring the transition said.
Emmanuel Nyaletey, founder and CEO of BridgeSolar, speaks during a panel on navigating Basel Convention changes in electronics recycling at the 2024 E-Scrap Conference. | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Chatter about legislative effects on the industry permeated much of the 2024 E-Scrap Conference, especially uncertainty around upcoming changes to the Basel Convention, and several sessions dug deep into new laws and coming policy trends in the e-scrap industry.
California’s extended producer responsibility for packaging law requires EPS food service ware and packaging to demonstrate a recycling rate of no less than 25% by Jan. 1. | Minh Mi Goi/Shutterstock
Expanded polystyrene food service ware producers have only a few months left to prove that the material has a recycling rate of at least 25% in California or face the prohibition of selling into the state.
Many states have explicitly included e-commerce and remote distribution in extended producer responsibility laws, seeking to capture a significant portion of packaging material that moves in and out of states. | GroundPhoto/Shutterstock
As states work through rulemaking for packaging extended producer responsibility laws, they’re dealing with a very modern twist: how to handle e-commerce.
Re-TRAC CEO Josh Reid explains why consistently collected, standardized data is vital for the recycling industry’s future. | Joyseulay/Shutterstock
With negative mainstream media coverage eroding public trust in recycling, now is the time to make changes, and an important piece of those improvements is accurate, standardized data collection.
California sent a handful of bills to the governor’s desk, including bills on food waste, plastic film, and the deposit return system. | Jonathan-Lenz/Shutterstock
Several states have late summer ends to their legislative sessions, including New Hampshire, Massachusetts and California, and in the final days several recycling related bills passed.
Eco-modulation is commonly introduced after an EPR program is established, as it requires a strong foundation of data. | Olivier-Le-Moal/Shutterstock
Many recycling industry players and brands are now familiar with the base concept of extended producer responsibility for packaging, but now advisory boards, producer responsibility organizations and state regulators are working on another complex, interrelated concept: fee eco-modulation.