Extended Producer Responsibility. Part 1: Define the Problem / Benign Neglect?

2009 The Watchmen

Adrian Veidt:
It doesn't take a genius to see that the world has problems.
Edward Blake:
No, but it takes a room full of morons to think they're small enough for you to handle.

"It doesn't take a genius to see the world has problems."

"It takes a roomful of morons to think they're small enough for you to handle."

So let's discuss EPR, or "Extended Producer Responsibility".  It's the most talked about recycling topic, other than "Plastic", at almost every recycling conference.

This blog is deliberately agnostic about EPR. Here is my critique.

1. Define the problem to be solved. Then don't neglect it.

The first ever bottle bill, in Vermont in the late 1950s, was passed at a time when "disposable" beverages was new. Most soda and beer at the time was sold in refillable bottles. Vermonters collecting litter saw that the new one-use containers constituted most of the litter, and the problem was "non-deposit container litter".

In the 1980s, when bottle deposit laws were proposed in several other states (including Massachusetts, which my division administered at DEP), there was a huge shift to single-use containers, and both rewarding refillables and recycling single use were part of the plan. The advocates conceded on putting the deposit only on carbonated beverages because bottled water wasn't common and the Cranberry Juice lobby in Massachusetts argued that (highly sugared) fruit juice was healthy. 

That concession - to put the nickel (plus 2.5 cent redemption handler fee) only on carbonated beverages would later prove a huge problem. But in the meantime, the collection of plastic PETE bottles helped invent post-consumer plastic recycling and led to a huge clothing and carpet recycling business.

Decades later people who were not around when these bottle bills were passed criticize the clothing and shoe and carpet recycled PETE content as "downcycling" because I guess we wouldn't otherwise buy clothing, shoes, and carpet - which is otherwise made of virgin material.

The neglect of these deposit laws - still at 5 cents in Massachusets after 40 years of inflation - is to me evidence of neglect... The Whole Roomfull of Morons problem. Everyone is excited about the EPR bandwagon, but where will it be 40 years from now, in 2065?

I'm not against EPR here, but this is a warning that the bottle deposit laws were EPR, too, and neglecting them is criminal negligence.

Part 2: To Be Continued