Progress

Project Summary

There is now an opportunity to overcome thirty years of stagnation in waste management policy in the US to achieve a whole-system transformation of recycling and resource management systems – by applying extended producer responsibility (EPR) principles. This opportunity is driven by clear and compelling financial accountability, and has the potential to meet or exceed global best practices and achieve greater than 70% diversion from landfill, as well as provide benefits to all stakeholders.

Getting to greater than 70% diversion for all packaging in the US (perhaps with intermediate targets) will require a policy and legislative framework that includes mechanisms to:

Shift accountability for packaging recycling systems to Producers (usually defined under EPR policies as brand owners and first importers)

Create incentives for Producers to make more sustainable packaging choices

Maintain accountability of local and regional government for waste disposal and diversion of organics

Educate residential consumers and industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) waste generators and incent them to sort recyclables out of the waste stream

Create a standard for measuring and reporting on program performance

The EPR system proposed here for recycling of packaging material is 100% funded by Producers, with the Recovery Organization (NPRO) controlling the funds, contracts and details of curbside recycling programs. (Alternately, funding responsibility could be shared between producers and municipalities, but our research suggests that a “full cost” system provides for better control of recovery system efficiencies, and more powerful incentives for product design strategies that will drive further waste stream reductions.)