Page 26 - Plastics News Issue May 2025
P. 26
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Packaging, Recycling Sectors
Connect On Curbside In Seattle
collecting recyclables from homes is expensive
— about $120 per household per year on aver-
age — and that commodity prices from recycling
don’t come close to covering the costs. Recy-
cling is not a money-maker; it's a public service
that needs to be paid for somehow.
Speakers emphasized that if more producers join
EPR programs and provide their data, the over-
all costs can be shared more fairly and reduced.
But if companies hold back or wait, it drives up
the costs for everyone.
t a major packaging conference, recy- Companies also have a role to play beyond just
cling and packaging companies came paying into the system. They can design packag-
Atogether in a way that hasn’t happened ing that’s easier to recycle, use recycled materi-
before. For years, recycling facilities (MRFs) have als in their products, and label packaging clearly
struggled with packaging designs that are hard so consumers don’t get confused and contami-
to recycle, while the packaging industry mostly nate recycling bins.
ignored their concerns. But now, because of new
recycling laws, growing environmental pressure, Amazon is one example of a company making
and brand image concerns, the packaging world a big shift. It has started switching a lot of its
is finally paying attention. packaging from plastic to paper to match what
people can easily recycle at home. The move is
One big driver of this change is something called less about choosing between paper and plastic
“Extended Producer Responsibility” or EPR. It’s and more about making sure the packaging fits
a new kind of law spreading across U.S. states the curbside recycling system.
that makes companies financially responsible for
recycling the packaging they produce. Oregon is Overall, the conference showed that packaging
about to launch the first full EPR program in the and recycling are finally starting to work togeth-
country, and producers have already submitted er. What used to be separate industries with lit-
detailed reports on what they sell there. Other tle communication are now cooperating to meet
states are quickly following, and it’s clear that new legal requirements and public expectations.
this trend is gaining momentum. The hope is that with better packaging designs,
clearer labels, and smarter laws, recycling in the
Companies are now not only preparing to follow U.S. will become much more effective and effi-
these laws but also showing up in big numbers cient.
at events like this to understand how recycling Source: Resource Recycling
works and what it costs. They’re learning that
26 PLASTICS NEWS May 2025
