Recycling Initiative
The leading U.S. environmental advocacy groups have long steered away from recycling legislation, due to the heated controversies generated over beverage container deposits and retailer take-back mandates, and the ideological posturing by all sides on the issue.
But that is changing. Last year, cash-strapped state governments discovered that deposit systems could be ready sources of free cash, if they could take the "unredeemed deposits" that are left over on containers that aren't returned for a refund.
This creates a danger for both environmental and business interests. It could corrupt the purposes of recycling systems, turning them into veiled funding systems for unrelated purposes – and increases costs to businesses and consumers.
But this alignment of business and environmental interest also presents an unparalleled opportunity: to forge a broad coalition on behalf of smart, comprehensive Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation at the state level, friendly to retailers, curbside, deposits, and consumers.
If we are proactive, and apply what has been learned under existing systems, EPR could provide an avenue for uniting environmental groups and leading companies behind comprehensive low-cost, harmonized systems that can be managed by brand owners, to limit costs, avoid bureaucratic intrusions, and foster continued packaging innovation.
Future 500's mission, in EPR and overall, is to help draw together a critical mass of key influencers who can help shape genuine systemic solutions to the problems that divide business and stakeholders.
Help move Recycling and EPR forward by signing on to the three EPR Principles. And if you want do more, tell us and we'll show you how.
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Principles
EPR is a legal framework that shifts responsibility for waste management from general taxpayers to producers and users. It focuses on results, and gives brand-owners the flexibility to determine the most cost-effective means to achieve them.
- Internalize Costs. When pollution and waste costs are externalized, pollution and waste increases. But when those costs are internalized by establishing specific cradle-to-cradle goals, businesses and consumers are rewarded for reducing these costs.
- Producer Financing. Because producers set front-end design specifications, they are best positioned to pay the external costs, and have the best opportunity and incentive to reduce them.
- Producer Management. Government may set the performance standards of EPR and hold industry accountable for achieving those goals, but producers are best positioned to design and manage the program to achieve those goals, so they can accrue the cost savings from reducing waste.
A Broader Platform: Full-Circle Recycling
Our EPR initiative reflects our broader full-circle recycling platform, building common ground among multiple stakeholders for a powerful set of recycling policies that most can agree on, including:
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems that meet the principles above
- Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) systems that charge rate payers by unit of waste
- Incentive and Award Systems, like Recycle Bank, that offer coupons, rewards, & incentives for every pound recycled
- Tipping Fee Surcharges that impose per ton fee at the landfill or incinerator
- Improvements of existing bottle bills and other incentives to cut their costs, improve environmental performance, and move beyond retailer mandates
- Model Programs that help improve a variety of recycling options that meet different needs - curbside, workplace, special venue, etc.
- Advertising and Marketing that is proven to change behavior among hard-to-reach consumers
- Funding Systems that finance a market basket of recycling opportunities, and drive large-scale rates of collection on materials of all types
Directory
Below is a representative directory of key stakeholders in this issue, most of which we have engaged. Click an entry to visit their website.
NOTE: The stakeholder organizations and individuals shown above does NOT imply any formal association with one another or with Future 500, with the occasional exception that some may be one of our partners.
Participation in the Recycling Initiative enables you to understand and, if you desire, engage with as many as 50 product stewardship and recycling organizations and initiatives and multi-stakeholders networks such as National Recycling Coalition; corporate watchdogs including GrassRoots Recycling Network, Basil Action Network, Clean Computer Campaign, Greenpeace, SACOM, and SOMO; social investor groups whose influence spans the sector such as As You Sow and ICCR; coalitions working for fees and deposits in 10 states and up to 30 cities; powerful new alliances such as The Coalition for Recycling; free market advocates such as Competitive Enterprise Institute; key foundation funders; and the many regional and issue-specific organizations and campaigns, each of which fills a unique niche in the overall movement
The Recycling Initiative process has been ongoing for more than two years, and has reached an advanced stage. If interested in participating, contact us for information.
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