Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy unites science, people and policy to protect our ocean, today and for generations to come. Ocean Conservancy advocates for evidence-based solutions to prevent plastic pollution, including comprehensive EPR frameworks that combine EPR, DRS and source reduction to deliver the best outcomes for our ocean and communities. Numerous scientific models have demonstrated that addressing the plastic pollution crisis requires reducing the amount of plastics we make, better managing the plastics that we do make and continued cleanups. While we cannot recycle our way out of this crisis, improving recycling is a critical tool in transitioning towards a more circular economy. With packaging accounting for about 40% of plastic production annually and representing a disproportionate amount of plastic pollution, EPR can address a major source of pollution, benefiting communities and the environment.
Recommendations for Policymakers Developing Circular Policy & EPR for Packaging Policies:
1. Enact Comprehensive EPR:
EPR can deliver better environmental outcomes when implemented as a comprehensive framework that unites EPR for packaging and paper, deposit return systems (DRS or recycling refunds) for beverage containers and source reduction for single-use plastics. These policies together improve recycling and reuse rates and access while protecting existing infrastructure. Comprehensive EPR can reduce overall packaging litter by 65%, cut packaging-related greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by increasing mechanical recycling and achieve up to 90% beverage container recycling rates.
2. Establish Strong Performance Standards for Reduction and Reuse:
To deliver the environmental outcomes needed to address plastic pollution, EPR policies need to include single-use plastic source reduction targets, including targets for scaling up reuse systems. Five of seven states that have passed EPR include reduction and reuse requirements. Legislators should require clear, enforceable performance standards—including targets for reuse and single-use plastic source reduction. Additionally, clear upstream redesign requirements should be included or incentivized to ensure products are compatible with the state’s recycling, reuse and composting systems.
3. Develop Safeguards to Ensure Recycling Outcomes:
How we recycle matters and EPR policies can only be successful if recycling returns packaging material back to the market to make new products. EPR should support recycling that recovers reusable material and ultimately displaces the need for virgin materials through strong criteria-based definitions of recycling and responsible end markets that require plastics-to-plastics recycling, strong environmental and community protection standards, and exclude harmful conversion chemical recycling technologies that do not meet these strict standards.
For more information, please consider these external resources available in the Public Facing Statements & Resources Section:
1. Ocean Conservancy: Model State Comprehensive EPR legislation
2. Ocean Conservancy: Chemical Recycling