Embracing Reuse in U.S. Packaging EPR Programs
Playbook for a Best-in-Class PRO
A position paper by Sydney Harris and Elizabeth Balkan
Introduction
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) can be an effective policy tool for mitigating the environmental impacts of products and packaging. Without EPR, producers bear no responsibility for the waste created by the products they make and profit from — their responsibility ends once their products enter the marketplace. EPR extends producers’ responsibility to the post-consumer management of their products and/or packaging — often requiring producers to pay for waste recovery and recycling.
While decades of precedence across Canada, Europe and elsewhere have demonstrated that EPR programs improve collection and recycling, their application toward waste prevention and reuse is a new and necessary frontier. These programs must begin emphasizing waste prevention and reuse over recycling if we wish to address the significant impacts of everyday packaged goods. Well-crafted EPR policies extend producers’ responsibility upstream — to ensure they design their products and packaging with the best environmental outcomes in mind. While these upstream design incentives and requirements are increasingly making their way into EPR legislation and programs, they have not yet delivered the product and packaging design changes needed at scale to live within our planetary boundaries.
If EPR funding were truly aligned with the sustainable materials management hierarchy, the majority of program funds would be directed toward source reduction and reuse, while the leftovers would go to recycling any packages that couldn't be reduced or reused. In reality, we continue to see a focus on recycling (and occasionally composting) in packaging EPR legislation, programs and discourse. In keeping with the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), EPR policies should prioritize reduction and reuse, shifting their overall focus from waste management to waste prevention. Taxpayers should not be on the hook to build reuse infrastructure, just as we should not be on the hook to fund recycling: both are systems to manage producers’ packaging.
The onset of packaging EPR programs in the United States is very new, with five laws enacted since 2021 and no programs yet operational. There is one producer responsibility organization (PRO), called Circular Action Alliance (CAA), registered to date, and some state rulemaking processes are still underway. Now is the time to think strategically and holistically about the future of reuse in U.S. packaging EPR systems, while there is opportunity to shape them from the ground up. In this paper, we call for an ambitious, public commitment from CAA and any future U.S. packaging PROs to invest in reuse systems.
These investments should occur across all five newly-enacted packaging EPR programs as well as any new programs launched in the coming years, irrespective of state-specific legislation. No matter what a given statute specifies, a best-in-class packaging PRO will commit to developing reuse systems with its member brands.
A best-in-class PRO should employ four reuse strategies:
Adopt a long-term vision and set consistent program goals;
Offer incentives and technical assistance to producers choosing reuse;
Provide direct funding for reuse systems; and
Maintain transparency.
U.S. packaging PROs have many priorities while they work to stand up new programs. Fortunately, these strategies can be launched immediately — and they must be, if reuse is to be more than an afterthought for packaging EPR. However, they can also be expanded over time to allow flexibility while programs launch. Each of these strategies is adaptable across distinct state legislative frameworks, meaning their adoption across programs will help to streamline and harmonize compliance for producers. In every packaging EPR program enacted to date, reusable packaging offers advantages to producers. A best-in-class PRO will support its members in exploring and transitioning to advantageous reuse systems to achieve the best outcomes for their bottom lines and the planet.
