EPR for packaging and paper products in Washington

Why EPR is a solution for the problem of packaging, December 2020 YouTube video from the Northwest Product Stewardship Council (NWPSC):

EPR for packaging webinars in 2021

Dec. 9, 2021 EPR 101: modernizing recycling in Washington State with the RENEW Act (YouTube).  NWPSC video recording exploring the "RENEW Act" legislation (SB 5697), with speakers Preston Peck of the City of Tacoma and Kris Major of the City of Spokane.

Nov. 22, 2021 - Packaging EPR 101 (YouTube) recording from the Washington State Recycling Association (WSRA) WRED event with NWPSC.

WSRA tour of Recycle BC

On Oct. 27, 2020, the Washington State Recycling Association (WSRA) in partnership with the Washington Beverage Association and Zero Waste Washington, hosted a virtual tour of the Recycle BC Packaging and Paper Product (PPP) extended producer responsibility (EPR) program, with Recycle BC staff and Washington State legislators. 

Recycle BC is the non-profit organization which operates the residential recycling system in British Columbia on behalf of 1300 companies who fund it, including Apple Canada, Coca-Cola Canada, ConAgra Foods Canada, Dell Canada, Domino's Pizza, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks Coffee Canada, and Unilever Canada.

Watch the tour recording (YouTube) and find the presentation slides on WSRA's website (PDF).

EPR for packaging in Rhode Island: Upstream testimony

In March 2016 testimony before a Rhode Island House committee (YouTube video), Jamie Rhodes of Upstream articulated the fairness and choice that extended producer responsibility (EPR) would bring to existing recycling systems:

"When you buy a product you pay for the raw materials that go into it, the labor and the manufacturing cost, the marketing, the distribution, but you're not paying a single cent into what to do with that material after you're done with it – that entire responsibility is put upon local governments. Managing that waste, from collecting it at your home, running a transfer station, is a burden on local governments. Right now we pay for it through our taxes.
What this bill proposes to do is when you buy it, you pay for the whole thing. It's about choice for consumers and fairness for manufacturers. Right now I have no choice that my tax dollars pay for and subsidize the recycling needs of all of my neighbors.
If we move to EPR, I pay for the recycling program that I use..."

According to an article in Recycling Today, the bill was held for further study (note that an EPR bill for mattresses was held for study in 2012 before passing the general assembly in 2013).

The NWPSC toured MicroGREEN Polymers in Arlington, WA, on Oct. 15, 2013.

Remaking Recycling in the U.S.: the Potential of Extended Producer Responsibility.

A Conversation with Kim Jeffery on Extended Producer Responsibility (CEO Nestle Waters North America), with Reid Lifset. Yale University, IEM Lecture Series on Business and the Environment, Producer, Packaging, and Public Policy. April 2, 2012 (YouTube, 52 minutes):