A letter from Wes Carter, President of Atlantic Packaging
Atlantic Packaging, a Supporting Partner to the Legislator Guide, is a major North American packaging distributor and sustainability leader that works across the supply chain to advance responsible packaging design, waste reduction, and circular-economy solutions.
Packaging EPR laws have sparked one of the most promising opportunities for waste reduction and packaging innovation our industry has ever seen. They are also among the most complex. The specific ways materials are classified, how responsibility and compensation flow through the system, and how we bring consumers along in this transition all underscore that the details matter enormously. Only when a diverse set of stakeholders can engage in meaningful, sometimes difficult, dialogue about those details will we create an EPR framework that truly works for everyone.
That’s why this Legislator’s Guide is so important. Since 2021 when the first packaging EPR laws passed in the U.S., we have all gained a clearer understanding of what it takes to make these policies effective: and we still have more to learn. The stakeholders contributing to this guide bring deep expertise and, increasingly, valuable data to support policymakers as they consider how to shape the next generation of circular policy. OPLN’s unique strength has always been their ability to convene groups that might not otherwise share a table, fostering the candid, multifaceted discussions required to tackle the waste crisis. This guide continues that tradition. It brings together a wide range of perspectives, at times divergent, because the challenges and goals of circular policy are inherently multifaceted. Our hope is that by having these viewpoints side by side, you’ll gain a richer understanding of how each stakeholder envisions achieving these shared objectives. Atlantic Packaging is proud to support this work.
A sincere thank you to OPLN and CIRCLE for bringing us together in the creation of this thoughtful resource, and thank you to legislators across the country for your commitment to strengthening circularity in your states. We are at a pivotal and exciting moment for the future of sustainable packaging.
