Here’s a preview of the new White Paper just released by Natural Logic:
The US can overcome thirty years of stagnation in waste management policy and divert more than 70% of solid waste from landfill.
Applying proven Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principles would provide clear and compelling financial accountability, and provide clear benefits to all stakeholders, from waste haulers and cash-strapped local governments to consumers and packaging manufacturers.
EPR is a market-based approach that effectively assigns end-of-life responsibility to producers, requiring them to meet specific targets for material recycling and recovery, relative to the total amount of packaging that they have put into the marketplace.
The white paper, Product Stewardship & Extended Producer Responsibility: Towards a Comprehensive Packaging Recycling Strategy for the US, explores the benefits and barriers to implementing an EPR-based comprehensive product stewardship system in the US.
Based on an Innovation Charrette™ convened by Natural Logic with experts on design, packaging and materials, waste management, environmental and waste policy, and analysis of best practices in Europe, Japan and Canada, the White Paper found significant benefits in EPR. These include:
- shifting the responsibility for collecting packaging – and the incentives for recycling, waste reduction and design innovation – from local government to producers;
- recycling targets which are mandated by law; and
- recycling systems that are financed, and in some cases managed, by packaging producers rather than government for greater effectiveness and efficiency.
“When we see a thoughtful proposal to greatly increase the recycling of packaging,” said Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director of the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), “CPSC is excited. We look forward to the next step – a national discussion to design a packaging policy that will work across the US.”
Product Stewardship & Extended Producer Responsibility: Towards a Comprehensive Packaging Recycling Strategy for the US is available for download (at no cost) at Natural Logic’s web site at https://natlogic.com/EPR/
Please contact us at EPR at natlogic dot com to discuss this work, sponsor further research, book a speaker, etc,