## U.S. throwing away billions in recyclable materials
_By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling_
A new report from a shareholder advocacy group has found that the U.S. is throwing away over $11 billion annually in valuable materials. Its answer to the problem: the U.S. should be more like Europe in how it manages its waste.
"[Unfinished Business: The Case for Extended Producer Responsibility for Post-Consumer Packaging][1]" is a report from As You Sow that makes the case for how extended producer responsibility, a policy that makes manufacturers responsible for the handling of their end-of-life products, could drastically improve the U.S.'s low recycling rates.
According to the report, the U.S. generates more waste than any other country, but recycles far less than other developed countries. In the U.S., according to the report, the recovery rate for packaging is about 48.3 percent and 52.7 percent for paper and paperboard products. However, aside from paper, just 22 percent of packaging is recycled in the U.S.
"There are other troubling trends: beverage container recycling rates [in the U.S.] have dropped 20 percent over the last two decades," reads the report. "One quarter of the U.S. population still doesn't have access to curbside recycling. More than 40 billion aluminum cans, the most valuable beverage container material, are still dumped annually into landfills in the U.S. According to Alcoa, this wasted material could provide enough aluminum to build 25,000 jetliners."
European countries have much higher rates, in some cases higher than 70 or 80 percent, which the report attributes to EPR policies that shift the burden of collecting and recycling waste to the companies that produce it.
"Our locally-controlled and taxpayer-funded recycling collection systems are often ill-equipped to deal with increasing volume and an expanding array of packaging wastes," reads the report. "Saddled with projected deficits topping $100 billion, local governments cannot afford to invest in improving recycling systems."
EPR is not a completely foreign concept in the U.S., according to the report, as there are more than 70 producer responsibility laws in effect in 32 states, covering products including paint, pesticide containers, carpet, electronics, thermostats and fluorescent lamps. However, packaging is absent from items covered by EPR laws in the U.S., with the exception of container deposit laws, which the report notes have been very successful.
According to the report, post-consumer paper and paperboard and packaging merit priority attention because they are the largest category of municipal solid waste. The report also calls for a greater focus on plastics, which dominate the packaging sector. The improper end-of-life management of plastic, according to the report, is linked to a serious problem of marine pollution.
The report also calls attention to AYS's efforts to enact EPR policies in the U.S. It mentions that AYS is engaging companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Kroger, Procter & Gamble, Safeway, Supervalu, Target, Unilever, Walmart and Whole Foods on EPR policies. AYS has already [had some success with Coca-Cola and Nestle Waters North America][2]. Additionally, the report mentions a new nonprofit organization that is friendly with AYS called "Recycling Reinvented" that [will begin pushing for EPR laws at the state level][3].
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[1]: http://www.asyousow.org/sustainability/eprreport.shtml
[2]: http://resource-recycling.com/node/2000
[3]: http://resource-recycling.com/node/2616
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URL: http://resource-recycling.com/node/2930
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