Many corporations are attempting to mitigate the plastic pollution crisis by reducing their use of plastics, yet few have committed to tackling the crisis in its entirety by taking accountability for what actually happens to their packaging at its end of life.

To solve the plastic pollution crisis, corporations need to adopt a circular economy mindset for packaging. With this framework, natural resource use is limited; products and packaging are designed to be reusable, compostable or recyclable and are collected for reuse or recycling when their useful life is complete.

To ensure their packaging is circulated, producers would benefit by advocating for extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation in the United States to level the corporate playing field on funding packaging waste at the end of its life. Without a national EPR policy, companies can make voluntary financial contributions to expand and modernize U.S. recycling infrastructure.

As You Sow has filed a resolution with Constellation Brands requesting it to investigate opportunities to improve its packaging circularity. Constellation Brands does not endorse EPR, nor make any known voluntary contributions to support recycling infrastructure. As You Sow plans to file similar resolutions this year with additional companies that have not taken responsibility for their packaging waste.

Four U.S. states recently passed EPR packaging laws f: California, Colorado, Maine and Oregon. The new requirements mean producers will pay a per-unit fee for each piece of packaging distributed in these markets. The fees will be commensurate with a package’s recyclability and overall sustainability, which financially incentivizes companies to design packaging with minimal material and optimal recyclability. Under EPR for packaging, reusable packaging is encouraged and often exempted from fees placed on single-use disposable packaging.

If more jurisdictions pass EPR legislation, corporations could face an annual financial risk of approximately $100 billion to cover the waste management costs of the packaging they produce, the Pew report found. Already, the European Union has already enacted a $1 per kilogram tax on all non-recycled plastic packaging waste.

The Recycling Partnership, the leading NGO working to improve recycling, finds that $17 billion is needed to modernize and expand recycling infrastructure and that doing so will save the equivalent of 710 million metric tons of CO2 over ten years.

To improve plastic recycling infrastructure alone, The Recycling Partnership recommends that companies contribute at least $88 for every metric ton of plastic used. Research by As You Sow finds that no company is voluntarily contributing even a fraction of this amount to support recycling infrastructure.

Yet, more than 100 leading companies have committed to promoting a circular economy for packaging by taking financial responsibility for the collection, sorting and recycling of packaging at end of life and supporting EPR legislation. More companies must join these leaders to supporting passage of EPR legislation.

Before national EPR becomes a reality, all companies must voluntarily contribute to recycling infrastructure and ensure their packaging never becomes plastic pollution.

Kelly McBee
Circular Economy Sr. Coordinator, As You Sow