A February 2018 report from US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) on garbage and recycling highlights producer responsibility:

"To protect public health and the environment, conserve natural resources and landscapes, and address the mounting crisis of global warming, America should move toward an economic system characterized by zero waste... Producers have few direct incentives to build products to last, to make them easy to repair, to use less packaging, or to make their goods or packaging easy to reuse, recycle or compost... In fact, it is often beneficial for producers to make goods intended to be used once or temporarily so that consumers continually buy more."

Among the tools to shift to a closed-loop economy that produces zero waste: "Require producers to take more responsibility for their products during their entire life cycle" through a variety of policies and programs at the local, state and national levels.