Scuttlebutt: Recycling and EPR
By Mitch McFarland
Anyone who has given any thought to the subject realizes that we cannot continue to gobble up the Earth's resources indefinitely. Big as it is, the world is a finite place and as more and more people populate our planet, something has got to give.
Recycling obviously has a major role to play, but it is not the sole solution. Expecting all consumers to act responsibly is a pipe dream. Just look at the vaccine debacle. We can't even get people to protect themselves from a potentially deadly virus, so how should we expect that people will all act responsibly to protect our planet and lifestyle?
Add to this the utterly confusing and constantly changing rules and practices within the recycling industry. Even fanatical recyclers like myself must continually pay attention to the ever-changing landscape of recycling. That is why I write these articles trying to give at least our local population current information and hints to aid their efforts.
There is currently much attention being paid to the very wasteful single use packaging. As online shopping has exploded and businesses turn to take-out retail and other Covid related issues, the problem has come more sharply into focus.
New appliances often come with large chunks of styrofoam that certainly no one ordered and virtually no hauler will accept. It can cost you several dollars to discard that stuff at the transfer station. And how about styrofoam peanuts, which virtually everyone hates?
Most people are familiar with the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle”. We may reuse things and recycle them, but how are we suppose to “reduce”. You can't order something online and click a box that says “please don't use styrofoam packaging”- or reams of non-recyclable shrink wrap. Why should it be your responsibility to pay to dispose of packaging that cannot be recycled? Even many things that are technically recyclable are not accepted at local recycling processors because they lack markets for the material.
The weird thing is that many major brands are committing themselves to increasing their use of recycled material, but can't get enough recycled feedstock to fulfill their commitments. Meanwhile consumers are frustrated because their solid waste companies won't accept things that could be recycled because they don't have markets for them. This disconnect is where the government has a role to play.
Along comes something called Extended Producer Responsibility laws. Vermont recently was the first state in the nation to create such a law and they are about to be joined by Oregon. The California legislature has had EPR bills introduced for several sessions, but the American Plastics Council and others are freaking out over these measures because it puts the responsibility for recycling their products on them instead of you.
In varying ways these laws put a cost to every single-use plastic item manufactured. The funds collected from manufacturers of plastics go to finance the recycling of their products. More importantly they will motivate companies to reduce the amount being created to begin with. If there is one thing that we all know about America is that if you put a price on something it gets looked at quite differently.
The U.S. Congress also has pending EPR laws that would create a national standard for the industry and make the process nationwide, but our bought-and-paid-for Congress has a hard time doing anything that might harm the bottom line of their donors and you know that the plastics and fossil fuel industry in general are big donors.
Momentum is building for EPRs. The European Union last year passed a strong measure that will apply to all importers to the EU as well as local producers. They were followed by Vermont and now Oregon, so if California can get with the program that will have a huge effect on the national effort. Industry would begrudgingly accept a national standard rather than having to adhere to numerous and various state measures.
Policy changes within government often take forever, so fortunately, some companies are taking the lead. Reduced packing is receiving a boost from several companies that are taking it upon themselves to take action.
A company called Love Beauty and Planet introduced aluminum refillable hair care bottles at Target. Once purchased the bottles can be refilled with a variety of the companies products.
Moon Valley has gone a step further by introducing a hair shampoo and conditioner that comes as a bar. No plastic bottle and the packaging is a simple, fully recyclable cardboard box.
An outfit called TerraCycle offers free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle your hard-to-recycle waste. They have a number of programs to choose from depending on what you wish to recycle. They send you a container and free shipping label to return previously impossible to recycle items. Check them out online.
An affiliated company called Loop has partnered with dozens of product brands to provide reusable containers for consumer goods. The Loop tote is sent to consumers to be filled with product containers and sent back for reuse or recycling.
One company, Preserve, even has recyclable toothbrushes, which, incidentally, researchers have found a surprisingly large number of in the Great Pacific Plastics Gyre.
It has been said that the revolution begins at home. Social change takes place when large numbers of a population make a personal choice to change, regardless of their form of government. It will take a combination of government action and market forces driven by consumer demand if we ever hope to reach a sustainable human population on our galactic lifeboat.
Editor's Note: Info on California Assembly Bill 842 is available at
https://epr.sustainablepackaging.org/policies/AB842. On that webpage you'll also find a link to the current California Assembly bill AB-842, California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act.
