Packaging Policy Update and 2023 Outlook

While these two bills were not enacted in 2022, AMERIPEN hopes they will be reintroduced in Congress in 2023 and ultimately enacted to further improve and innovate the current packaging recovery infrastructure in the U.S., including for systems that can recover compostable packaging. 

Read this recent column from AMERIPEN’s Dan Felton on the four states with EPR.

Felton:

AMERIPEN also hopes to see additional traction in 2023 on implementation of the EPA’s National Recycling Strategy that began in 2022 to expand data collection, standardize recycling definitions, and advance end-market development for recycled materials. Finally, AMERIPEN is optimistic there may be some consideration of federal uniformity around the issue of recyclable, compostable, and reusable labeling for packaging following enactment of rather onerous legislation in California in 2021 that will restrict recycling messaging on packaging beginning in 2025.

With other states actively considering similar legislation, AMERIPEN believes the EPA and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission [FTC], which may soon begin a formal review of its Green Guides, are good forums for efforts to establish national definitions and a labeling language so we can avoid multiple state-specific labeling standards, which we believe will result in increased consumer confusion and additional packaging material going to landfill. It appears there will be ample additional opportunities for packaging companies to engage at the federal level this year on packaging policy for recycling, recyclability labeling, increased recovery, and end-market development.

Recycled content continued to be a big issue in 2022, including proposed legislative mandates. What’s happening there, and how should packaging companies be planning for this?

Hackman:

Following Washington State’s relatively broad recycled-content mandate law in 2021, which includes plastic beverage containers, household and personal care products, and trash bags, New Jersey went even further in early 2022, enacting a new recycled-content mandate law covering rigid plastic containers, glass containers, paper and plastic carryout bags, and plastic trash bags.

In November, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] began a stakeholder engagement process that should continue well into 2023 and offers an excellent opportunity for packaging companies to help shape pending rulemaking around this new law. Washington State considered legislation to expand its 2021 recycled-content mandate law to additional forms and types of plastic containers, but that bill language failed to advance. AMERIPEN expects to see some form of that language introduced again in 2023, along with several other states likely to consider recycled-content mandates as standalone legislation or wrapped into packaging producer responsibility proposals.

Felton:

There were a handful of other state legislatures that considered recycled-content mandates in 2022, including an onerous proposal in California that would have mandated recycled content specifically for thermoform containers. It was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom who recognized that enacting such a proposal right on the heels of the state’s new packaging producer law that contains recycled-content language didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

AMERIPEN released a study in 2021 that looked at packaging goals for recycled content versus available supply and capacity. At that time, we identified a shortfall for all plastic resins except for high-density polyethylene. Now add in more state mandates and more companies increasing their post-consumer recycled content goals, and that pressure is anticipated to increase. This could add significant pressure and additional complexity on smaller converters and brands, further exacerbated by the slow pace of U.S. Food & Drug [FDA] approvals for food-contact recycled content. Packaging World readers are encouraged to join AMERIPEN in discussions in 2023 to help shape legislative and regulatory outcomes that are achievable and reasonable and that recognize that “one size” doesn’t always fit all.

AMERIPEN has been working with PMMI on a packaging trends study. Can you tell us more about this and why it matters to AMERIPEN?

Felton:

AMERIPEN has been collaborating with PMMI – The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies to learn more about the trajectory of packaging design over the next 10 years and the factors that will drive cutting-edge innovation. Through a survey and a series of focus groups and workshops, we heard from more than 400 Consumer Packaged Goods brands, converters, raw material suppliers, and operation equipment manufacturers, and we were able to identify which materials and packaging formats are on the rise or in decline. Their input also helped isolate when and where packaging substitutions might occur and offered insights into the dynamics fueling such decisions. Working with peers and stakeholders, we then explored the potential implications of these packaging shifts on public policy and our recovery systems.

Listen to this podcast on the results of AMERIPEN and PMMI’s packaging trends study.

The study, which should be released this month, indicates that public policy is not fully aligned with the projected growth of some packaging materials (i.e., compostables and flexibles) and the need for more recycled content and that proactive public policy should look beyond just design for recycling and toward more recycling infrastructure and innovation. We believe this forward-looking perspective will help advance necessary dialogue to ensure recycling investments through packaging producer responsibility or federal or state funding initiatives to address recycling infrastructure are directed toward the future needs of the system and not just to support the system as it’s designed today.

Any other packaging policy considerations you think our readers should know about as 2023 begins?

Hackman:

There was an increased focus on toxics in packaging in 2022, with ongoing interest from policymakers in certain chemicals, like PFAS and phthalates, either in or used to manufacture packaging and other products. This trend is expected to continue in 2023. There was also an increased focus on advanced, aka chemical, recycling in 2022 that will likely continue during 2023 at least within the context of packaging producer responsibility and recycled-content discussions. Finally, there is a growing policy discussion about the potential for additional deposit return systems, aka bottle bills, in the U.S. as some material sectors see that as a path forward to increasing the use of PCR content while some environmental organizations want beverage containers to be covered by this policy rather than packaging producer responsibility. This may result in more traction for bottle bill proposals at the state level, as well the potential for some more pressure at the federal level for a national bottle bill.

Felton:

Overall, AMERIPEN believes 2023 will be one of our most active years for packaging policy ever. We encourage PW readers to get involved with their trade associations, state chapters, and chambers, and/or AMERIPEN to ensure their voices are heard. —Anne Marie Mohan

AMERIPEN, a material-neutral trade association for the packaging industry, is focused on the intersection of packaging policy and the environment and educates the industry on the value of packaging.