In Waste 360, Feb. 17, 2021, Chaz Miller, who has written critically of producer responsibility programs in the past for the WCRRC, examines the complexity of the U.S. garbage and recycling collection system:

"our 50 states, 3000 counties and more than 10,000 municipal governments have not adopted a uniform approach... All garbage is truly local."

Miller concludes that "producer responsibility may be the right thing for American curbside recycling. But it is a totally new program. We have to get it right the first time. Once a new system is entrenched, it will be hard to change."