American Beverage

American Beverage and its members have engaged actively on EPR legislation in the United States, including taking a leading role in enacting the law in Colorado and helping craft compromise language leading to passage of the laws in Minnesota, Maryland and Washington, all of which we hold out as models for other states. EPR has the potential to efficiently increase recovery of packaging and paper products but only under well-crafted laws. Our vision for well-designed EPR will generate strong environmental outcomes in an efficient and accountable manner, provide convenient recycling to residents, be financially sustainable, and offer producers access to recovered material for closed loop recycling.

Recommendations for Policymakers Developing Circular Policy & EPR for Packaging Policies:

1). Maintain focus on material circularity for consumer packaging and paper products. The primary focus of EPR must be enhanced access to and service quality of materials recovery programs; this is not a simple task. Much hard work lies ahead to deliver coherent, results-driven recovery programs for consumer goods packaging and paper products sold to consumers at covered entities, principally residential units (both single and multifamily). While some advocate for EPR as a stalking horse for bans on materials and products, these disruptive policies detract from EPR’s core mission of recovery, robust education and outreach programs, and transparent and competent program administration and oversight.

2). Harmonize processes and key definitions. EPR programs must reflect local priorities, markets, and demographics, but consistency across some program elements will result in more effective, efficient systems, even as they reflect the diverse communities in which they operate. Key governance and scope parameters to harmonize include initial selection of a single, non-profit Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) to compile a needs assessment to set baselines, propose collection lists and set performance targets that reflect those findings, prepare a plan including material-specific fees to producers and reimbursement rates for service providers, and roll out the program elements in a timely fashion. Harmonized definitions for covered materials (packaging and paper) and exemptions; producers; and metrics like recycling rates, recycled content, and responsible markets simplify program design and implementation without interfering with local priorities. Other key elements to include in programs are eco-modulation that incentivizes circularity and sustainable design, processes for producers to purchase recovered material, and maximizing use of existing infrastructure and service providers.  

3). Recognize the complexity of the task ahead: give programs time to succeed. We are all hungry for swift system change, EPR programs need time to develop the data, plans, and strategies to ensure an effective program launch. Trying to short-circuit the process with bad or limited baseline data on access, capacity, markets, and cost will result in disappointing outcomes. Thousands of producers plus service providers need to register, provide data, and learn about the program, while new equipment is specified and ordered. Realistic timelines for needs assessments, plan development and review, and program rollout are critical, and experience in states is already providing feedback that needs to be reflected in structuring new laws and programs.