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Consumer Preference, not EPR, Driving U.S. Packaging

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a circular economy “reduces material use, redesigns materials to be less resource intensive, and recaptures ‘waste’ as a resource to manufacture new materials and products.”

Ben Miyares

The American packaging market isn’t there yet. The EU and Canada have moved closer than the U.S. to the goal of packaging economy (development-production-distribution-functionality-disposal/reuse) circularity. They’ve done this largely by complying with Germany’s Grüne Punkt (Green Dot) government directive. The Green Dot dictates are at the heart of the EU’s continually expanding Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWD) directive now being transformed into a tighter, more restrictive regulation.

The American packaging market has never been a fan of big government’s intrusion into their packaging operations. Packagers are guided more by the vox populi (voice of the people) than the vox imperii (voice of the empire).

Responding to consumers’ pro-sustainability packaging sentiments, a growing number of international CPGs have set packaging reduction/simplification goals and opted to lighten their packaging carbon footprints. Candy marketers are voluntarily switching from plastic to paper wraps. Aluminum is the material of choice for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs). Paper bottles (with and without flexible barrier liners) are now a thing. Returnable/refillable containers are making a market comeback, difficult to isolate and recycle material layers are being stripped out of rigid and flexible packaging structures, and sustainability/circularity is the enlivened central theme of a highly visible corrugated board marketing campaign.

To be sure, packaging managers are aware that these actions are a strong talisman in keeping the wolf of restrictive packaging regulations away from the door.

Still, state legislators are quilting a patchwork of extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations to force broadly defined “producers” to pay to manage post-consumer packaging waste, rather than the municipal authorities who have been handling the waste.

MaineAn Act to Support and Improve Municipal Recycling Programs and Save Taxpayer Money (LD 1541). This Law charges producers for managing and recycling packaging waste; requires producers of paper and packaging waste to fully finance stewardship organizations to manage and help develop methods to collect and recycle products on the producers’ behalf. It covers most packaging materials; exempts paint and beverage containers, small businesses and low-volume (between 1 and less than 15 tons annually) packaging producers. Rationale: Incentivize producers to “create packaging that can be easily recycled and contains more recycled content.”

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