Maine and Oregon now have extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging. Industry input is critical to ensure future producer responsibility plans are effective, equitable, and truly support packaging recovery and recycling.
July was an important month for state-level packaging producer responsibility programs in the United States. Over the past several weeks, two states — Maine and Oregon — have signed into law legislation for packaging producer responsibility, and several more states are considering doing the same.
AMERIPEN supports shared responsibility for financing and managing the modernization of the recycling system to match packaging innovations. However, we are concerned that these laws and future legislation may exclude stakeholder input, create difficult-to-manage systems, and further strain an already struggling US recycling/recovery industry.
A closer look at both laws underscores the challenges that the packaging industry foresees as more states look to packaging producer responsibility as one way to balance recycling budgets by shifting the financial responsibility of end-of-life management of packaging from consumers and government to industry. Even so, recent research shows these laws may still cause increased costs to consumers for the goods they purchase.