Producer responsibility organization Circular Action Alliance plans to build a network of 144 PRO Recycling Centers, pictured, for hard-to-recycle items. | Photo Courtesy of Circular Action Alliance
Extended producer responsibility for packaging in Oregon is officially implemented, with the first dollars from producer fees flowing out to the communities most in need as of July 1.
Coloradans are working to implement a series of recycling-related policies, which sometimes support and sometimes oppose each other. | Gargonia/Shutterstock
When it comes to recycling, most policy is set at the state level — but not all of it. When city ordinances, state law and a governor’s priorities all interact, it can be a recipe for both significant change and serious complexity.
The report touches on five main topics: recyclability of covered materials, compostability of covered materials, reuse and refill and other source reduction systems, cost coverage for local jurisdictions, and plastic leakage into the environment. | Ratchat/Shutterstock
Members of the California extended producer responsibility for packaging advisory board have identified dozens of barriers to implementation and offered up possible solutions in a recent report.
The final bill builds on previous legislation, resulting in an EPR program that will take shape in 2028. | Evan Lorne/Shutterstock
After five years of work and many interim steps, Maryland became the sixth U.S. state to pass extended producer responsibility legislation for paper and packaging, continuing the policy’s evolution in the country.
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.